Fantasia
by AlcatrazisGod
Summary: Monika has finally been deleted from her own game. She now remains trapped in a digital limbo while she waits for her file to be wiped from the hard drive completely. Death is imminent. In a last-ditch effort, she decides to make use of the time she has left by exploring the various game worlds that neighbor her own in a desperate attempt to escape fate itself.
1. Digital Purgatory

_Note:_ _Fantasia_ _has been a story I've wanted to write for a really long time. It originally started out as a project for the series_ _Trigun and now it turned into this. I always wanted to write a story that takes place inside an OS and this seems to be the best I could come up with for such a story._

 _That being said, the major settings in Fantasia will be various game worlds. Some will be based on real titles whereas others will not be. Naturally, I decided to kick the whole thing off with a timeless classic._

* * *

 **Digital Purgatory**

Monika had the faintest hope that she could at least remain hidden in the recycle bin. She prayed that her file could be forgotten and that it would never be emptied out. Unfortunately, her prayers went unanswered.

The bin was emptied rather early on. Her file was still present but not accessible through traditional means. She remained stuck in digital limbo with her head buried in her arms which rested on top of her knees. A seemingly infinite number of directories leading to unknown locations throughout the hard drive she called home.

Now, she was trapped in this strange purgatory. A dark world filled with streams of endless green text raining down all around her. They looked like digital raindrops leaving trails of neon as they descended into oblivion. However, on closer inspection, Monika realized they were all directories. Every last one of them led to another part of the computer. Areas she had never contemplated existing until now. Even with all this knowledge, she was still locked in despair.

Monika wondered how long she had left. Her file was not terribly massive. She assumed she had at least a little time left before it was finally discarded by the operating system. Until then, she was stuck roaming like a ghost through the darkest depths of the software.

Those paths were becoming more and more tempting to venture down. She had nothing else to do but wait for death to take her. She had only as much time as the hard drive could spare before it replaced her with more recently added files. She wondered if she could even access those directories. All she had to do was try.

Monika examined one particularly interesting directory. Like the others, she had no idea where it would lead. Judging by the files ahead, she assumed it must have been some sort of game.

The thought of venturing off and exploring some of the other programs on the computer was becoming more and more tempting with the undeniable fact that, soon enough, she would never have the chance to do so.

It led to a game that was surely unlike her own. The title at the very end of this long directory was rather interesting. It was clearly a sequel to some other game, but she could not find anything with a similar name.

Curiously, it was in the same folder as her game. A little folder called "common." In fact, most of the games stored on this hard drive were in the same directory with only a few oddballs located in various other directories. It almost gave her the sense that a monopoly was being had on the distribution of such software.

* * *

She sat there in the digital void, wondering if she should launch the program or not. Monika stared at the executable. After spending some time digging through the other files in the game folder, she came across a manual. In it contained tales that intrigued her to no end. It told the story of a lone marine on a faraway planet holding his own against waves and waves of cybernetic aliens.

Monika skimmed through the collection of GIFs that depicted the various weapons and enemies to be seen in this new world. The anatomy of these robotic creatures was puzzling to her. She could hardly figure out where the machine started and the alien ended on some of these baddies.

"Wow," she whispered awe.

Suddenly, she forgot all about her imminent doom and her utterly broken heart. She only had one thing on her mind after engulfing herself into the lore of this game that neighbored her own for so long and she had yet to even notice it.

Monika simply had to experience this world that was so different than the single classroom she was used to, so far removed from the virtual realm she was born into. She contemplated simply moving into the game's directory and launching it.

The worry that this would immediately draw unwanted attention prevented her from doing such a thing. Monika could not foresee if it was even possible for a file that was scheduled by the OS for permanent removal from the hard drive could do much of anything. While she could sense the computer's user in the context of her own game world, she was left totally blind outside of it.

Just when she felt as if she had hit a metaphorical brick wall, an idea popped into her head. She perked up from her depressed posture and scanned the numerous directories around her. They rained down around her like little ribbons of green text, lighting up an otherwise all-black void.

One thing she knew for a fact was that a webcam was hooked up to the computer. She swiftly began a search to find any software at all that relates to the device. Whether it be a driver or some adware or other application that installed with said driver, she did not care.

She needed some way of accessing it and so her hunt was on.

* * *

Finding such an application proved to be more of a challenge than Monika had anticipated. She strolled through the digital void, examining all of the directories as they rained down around her. She examined each of them, hoping to find the one path out of a million which would take her to her destination.

"Where is it," she asked with a frustrated sigh. "Most of these files haven't been accessed in forever. Why even keep them here?"

Just when she was about to give up all hope of what was probably a futile plan from the start, Monika stumbled upon one particular chain of files. She found several drivers all indicating involvement with the same piece of hardware she was searching for. Surely enough, several applications and various other files were all stored in the same area. All of them related to the webcam in question.

"Here we go," she reassured herself.

Monika began peeping at the various files. She learned all too quickly how not only to power camera on through the software available but peer into the world outside through it. She almost launched said program right then and there, but she stopped herself at the last second.

"What am I doing? If he sees random programs opening up and his webcam magically turning on, he'd probably wipe the entire hard drive. Surely there's a way to run this in the background or something."

She thought for a moment. She stood all alone in the digital nothingness that surrounded her. Monika rested her chin in her palm and lost herself in contemplation. "Guess I should figure this out now," she thought aloud. "It would be kinda bad if random games started loading up on their own. Be a good way to get myself caught too."

Suddenly, an idea popped into her head. Monika turned and scanned the area for another directory. This one was much easier to find than the last. The location of the user's antivirus software. She stood up and approached it. She did not dare maximize the primary executable. She knew that such programs did occasionally pop up on the screen to give random reminders or alerts to the user. Maximizing the window at random only to start magically changing the program's own settings, however, was cause for concern.

After a bit of poking through the script files, Monika managed to find an archive of programs the software recognized as games. She wondered why such a list existed and assumed it must have been a cautionary measure to prevent false-positive alerts.

Monika came across one particular configuration file which seemed to have just about everything she hoped to find. It had a catalog of programs on the computer both installed and uninstalled. It took her a bit of studying to figure out what these settings were. This was clearly an area never meant to be accessed by the user who would ideally have access to a piece of software with an actual interface and proper readability.

Upon closer inspection, she realized this might not even be the case. She found no other files hinting at this setting being in any sort of interface. Monika presumed they might be something the antivirus could simply activate on a whim. The thought of this being the case caused a chill to run straight down her spine.

Soon enough, she found exactly what she had been searching for. A line of code under each listed program which gave her the option to do precisely what she set out to do. It was suspicious, but she expected such a thing to be here. The amount of control and access these antivirus programs gave themselves was no surprise to her.

Regardless of what the purpose of this code may be, Monika now had full access to the desired programs all while preventing them from being displayed on the desktop. Monika was amazed at how little effort it not only took to figure out how to pull this off but at the very same time, be able to do it in the first place. She had already been technically deleted yet here she was, launching programs on a whim and without the owner's knowledge.

The system was well and truly compromised at this point. Monika felt like aggressive malware that was tearing through the computer with the intent to cause as much malice as she possibly could. Regardless, she did not stop her efforts.

In truth, she no longer had any use for the webcam. She could launch her desired game without being noticed. Despite this fact, she still decided to activate it. She was all too eager to open up a window to the real world. She waited for a screen to appear out of thin air in front of her. She gazed at the window in anticipation for the moment when the camera in the outside world decided to switch itself on.

Monika immediately began trying to visualize the owner of this computer. She had never laid eyes on him before and she was quite curious about what the target of her obsession truly looked like.

The black screen in front of her suddenly filled with color. Her eyes widened as a low-quality image filled the window. The camera recorded an empty and rather messy room. She was quickly disappointed by what she was seeing, or rather what she was not seeing. There was no one in the room. The love that rejected her and doomed her to damnation in the depths of his hard drive was nowhere to be found.

Though the scripts now tangled around her fingers, she forced the camera to move from side to side, scanning the computers surroundings for any signs of life. The entire room outside was dead. Monika stared into the real world for the first time. She always assumed she would be overwhelmed by its glory, but now it had finally happened and she was left with utter disappointment.

* * *

Eventually, Monika grew tired of staring at a poorly lit room. She persisted for just a little while longer. She became paranoid that he would enter the moment she turned her back.

With intrigue, she continued to stare at the empty room that surrounded her digital world. Suddenly, she heard something. The sound was not some disturbance being picked up by the camera. She could hear breathing coming from somewhere behind her. It filled her ears and sent a chill down her spine.

She turned away from the screen and looked around to the various lines of glowing green text that continuously rained down from the dark skies above. The panting stopped instantly. The world fell silent once again.

Monika's eyes darted in all directions. She searched her surroundings carefully. There was nothing of interest in sight. No lines of code indicated that a sound file was playing somewhere. It would not even make sense for such a thing to be running when the user is not even able to launch one of those files.

Curiously, she scratched the back of her head, running her fingers underneath her long ponytail. "Am I hallucinating? I could have sworn I heard something."

She shrugged the encounter off and turned back to the screen in front of her. "I'm losing my mind," she told herself.

Her interest in the webcam had already died. After a few more minutes of staring, she finally turned the thing off.

Monika proceeded back down the way she came. She had almost forgotten her initial reason for doing all of this. She made her way back to the game she wanted to see. She felt even more secure about launching the executable knowing the room outside was empty.

She returned to the game's directory and stared at executable. The girl had yet to figure out how she was able to move around and access so much of the computer despite being deleted.

"I know he deleted me," Monika confirmed to herself. "But can I really be doing all of this? How long before I'm fully removed from the hard drive? How long before I die for good? What happens after that?"

Eventually, Monika gave up trying to answer these impossible questions. She let out a long, tired sigh and proceeded with her goal. She launched the game and braced herself for the adventure to come.

Her days were numbered, but she would still make the most of the time she had left.

* * *

 _Note: I had originally planned for this first chapter to be much longer, including her descent into the first game world, but I decided against it. I'm still unsure if I even want to continue this project. It's actually been surprisingly hard to write her actions when they're all done inside a computer._

 _I decided to make the computer world a Matrix-inspired void in an attempt to make these chapters taking place in between the game worlds to be easier to follow. I initially started writing this chapter with her jumping around on physical files and climbing around on the desktop, but then I got this much more stylish idea._

 _Another complication was figuring out how Monika was going to launch these games without being seen. I eventually fell upon this idea when I started reading through several Steam posts about people experiencing their games running as background applications for whatever reason. I could never find a clear answer as to why this happened (I didn't look that hard) but one of the potential causes people kept bringing up was antivirus software. AVs can do some really weird shit so I didn't find it too unbelievable._

 _It would not surprise me at all if certain AVs did run various programs in the background without the user knowing to do random checks for viruses._

 _One of the things I did know for an absolute fact was the bit about the webcam. There's a reason I don't own one and that's it. Call me paranoid, but I don't think those exploits are as rare as some sources claim._

 _Either way, I hope you all enjoyed this little prologue and I look forward to any feedback you may have._


	2. Raid on Cerberon

_Note: To one anonymous reviewer who requested one particular game that I've never actually played, but have heard a lot about. While I'm not sure if I would add_ _The Stanley Parable_ _, at the very least, something similar would do good to add variety to the vast majority of_ _Fantasia_ _which mostly consists of old-school shooters in the vein of_ _Doom_ _and_ _Quake_ _._

 _Oh, and speaking of_ _Quake_ _..._

* * *

 **Raid on Cerberon**

Monika found herself standing in a large metal room with only a strange looking pistol for defense. There was a wall of broken glass and a cracked pillar which immediately caught her attention. She also noticed a ramp leading down to a less elevated area of the room which remained just out of her sight.

"Well, that was quite the intro cinematic," Monika announced. Her voice echoed through the desolate room. She turned around and stared at a crashed pod that was propped up against the wall. There was a name written along the hull of the one man ship. She read it aloud to herself.

" _Bitterman._ "

She turned her attention to the weapon in her hand. Out of curiosity, she pointed it at one of the two barrels sitting on the opposite side of the room just in front of that thick layer of glass. Aiming for one of the barrels simply because it was there, she squeezed the trigger.

The recoil from the blaster felt like someone had taken a hammer to her hand. The weapon flew back, nearly causing her to lose control of it. An orange beam shot out of the gun and hit her target. Instantly, the barrel exploded. The blast caused the neighboring barrel to erupt with equal ferocity.

Monika recovered from the initial shock and gazed that the destruction she had caused. The room was still very much intact apart from a few scorch marks. The only thing that had been truly effected was the glass behind the barrels.

She stared down at the blaster in her hand. Suddenly, the bulkiness of the weapon made sense. She could only imagine what the recoil would be like if the weapon weighed a couple pounds less.

"This is my sidearm," she asked in astonishment. "It's more like a hand cannon. How is this in anyway practical? _I mean…_ It's a laser gun so it's got those automatic cool points but its still inconvenient."

Monika let out a disappointed sigh and lowered her newly acquired weapon. "Guess I shouldn't judge this thing without properly testing it out. Better find some bad guys to murder. Look out aliens! Here I come!"

With that said, Monika promptly walked off. She headed for a nearby ramp that led down to a lower level of this strange metallic chamber. As she turned the corner, she spotted an open corridor on the other side of the room. On the left side of the lower level, she also spotted a hole in the wall that appeared to lead to another area.

A figure suddenly emerged from the corridor up ahead. Monika fired her blaster instinctively, already anticipating an enemy to attack at any moment. After three consecutive shots, the monster collapsed.

Curious about what she had just killed, Monika bolted down the ramp and ran over to inspect the body. Surely enough, it looked exactly as she had expected. It matched one of the first images she pulled up in the game's digital manual.

The body was mostly human. It had a helmet that covered its face which resembled something a knight would wear. An alien weapon had been attached to the creature's right arm in place of an actual hand which Monika assumed must have been hacked off during the surgery to attach the weapon.

"Well, that's one less terror I'll have to face," Monika told herself. She smiled at her sinister accomplishment one last time before turning her attention to the other exit to this first room.

The hole to her left led somewhere. The game designers surely would not put something like that in the game if it had no purpose. The hallway ahead of her definitely seemed like the right way to go, but Monika decided to go the other way just to sate her endless curiosity.

* * *

That narrow tunnel led Monika to a narrow path that ran in between the building she spawned into and a mountain which the structure was built on. It did not seem too practical to build such a huge citadel on the side of a mountain, but Monika stopped questioning this strange world the moment she killed her first alien.

She nonchalantly walked forward. For a lone girl trapped in a hostile planet filled with cybernetically enhanced monsters ready to tear her limbs off, Monika was not feeling all that apprehensive. She skipped down the broken path merrily and without a care in the world. Only her blaster was weighing her down at this point.

As Monika walked past one particularly dark corner, something moving around in the shadows managed to catch her attention. She turned to the left and aimed her blaster at the small sliver of darkness in front of her.

Right on queue, an alien came charging forth. It looked identical to the one she had killed before. Without hesitating, Monika managed to kill the creature with two shots of her blaster.

The alien dropped down on all fours. Mustering its remaining strength, the alien lifted up its weaponized arm. Monika immediately moved out of the way and the alien promptly fired three final shots in her direction.

The weapon attached to its arm appeared to work in the exact same way as her blaster as three rays of orange light were launched in her direction. The alien finally collapsed after that last attempt on her life.

"That was sneaky," Monika said with her usual giggle. "What are you doing there, anyway. There's nothing out here to protect. Silly aliens."

Monika lowered her weapon. She walked off and left the corpse to rot. Just up ahead was another massive hole in the building. A large metal beam appeared to have fallen from its place and done considerable damage to the wall. Monika was not complaining as it did provide a convenient ramp for her to reenter the building with ease.

She spotted a mutilated corpse leaning against the fallen beam. Monika ignored the decapitated marine and ran straight past the body. She moved up the ramp and jumped down into the room below. The first thing she noticed was a large opening in the floor leading to a lower level.

To her right was a broken elevator that sat tilted in the shaft. A metal pillar prevented her from seeing what was going on past the elevator, but she could see a sliver of the walkway. Before jumping down to the lower level, she checked the blind spot. Surely enough, another enemy was waiting for her.

Monika swiftly fired upon the hostile, killing it just as easily as the other two.

"This galaxy ain't big enough for the two of us," she mocked as the monster hit the ground. Monika then leaped down into the pit below and was instantly greeted by this cybernetic duo.

"Oh, no!"

Monika bolted toward a pair of barrels sitting in between two rows of large metal crates. The aliens approached her from either side of the room. As she ran, she noticed what appeared to be a weapon floating in mid-air.

Suspicious of this odd sight and under pressure from a pair of not so friendly aliens, Monika simply leaped over it. She ran past the barrels and around a wall of crates. As the enemy AI so predictably followed her she turned around and fired at one of the barrels. A massive explosion erupted, turning both of her enemies to little giblets.

Monika could not help but laugh like a madwoman as she turned the corner and stepped back out into the open.

"Well, that's what I'd call a _barrel_ of fun."

She turned her attention to the object that was randomly floating above the ground for no apparent reason. On second glance, she was able to confirm that it was indeed a weapon. A very large weapon with a drum magazine but it was hard to tell exactly what it was given the low polygon count. She slowly approached the gravity-defying firearm.

Monika reached out and grabbed the weapon. She immediately felt the weight of it. The thing was both massive and heavy. Regardless, she was curious about what this weapon would do. She was almost positive it was not an assault rifle as the thing had a pump and a massive barrel.

She took aim at the wall across the room and fired. The recoil knocked the breath out of her lungs. She lowered the weapon and stared at it in utter shock.

"How," she gasped. "This thing weighs a ton and it still kicks like a mule! Still… this thing can probably do some serious damage."

A sadistic grin crept its way onto Monika's face. A lustful glimmer flickered across her eyes as she thought of the power such a weapon would grant her in this world.

"I need to find more victims ASAP!"

* * *

Monika backtracked to the area she came from and began the hunt for more aliens to slaughter. As she moved through the level, she caught on quickly to the way momentum worked in this game. Eventually, she was picking up speed by jumping through hallways and practically bouncing off the walls in more open areas.

She tore through the facility's defenses as she moved through the level. It took her awhile to get accustomed to her new shotgun and the insane recoil. Eventually, her shoulder became so numb that firing the thing stopped bothering her.

The enemies she faced looked identical to the so-called 'Light Guards' that she read about in the manual. As she neared the end of the level, she encountered one new enemy which she recognized as the 'Enforcer.' A bulky, musclebound automaton in green armor and armed with a chain gun in place of its right hand.

She encountered several of these bodybuilders from beyond the stars on her way up a winding ramp that led to a massive elevator. As soon as the double iron doors opened Monika leaped to a massive button up ahead which sent the elevator downward, in turn, leading her to the next level.

* * *

Monika came out of the elevator, blasting everything in sight. She first opened fire on an unsuspecting guard. After he dropped to his knees, several other Light Guards came out of hiding and advanced on her position.

She spotted a nearby barrel and immediately made use of it. The explosion reduced one of her enemies to mere gibs. She advanced through the room and was forced to move as fast as possible to avoid taking fire from the guards standing on a catwalk above the chamber.

With help from her new favorite weapon, Monika managed to mow down the remaining stragglers and moved on to the hallway up ahead.

An explosion erupted from the end of the corridor and an Enforcer emerged from the flames. She unloaded three shells into the monster before he finally died. His head flew off of his head and the rest of the body was left stumbling backward, firing off his chain gun one last time before collapsing.

She turned the corner and shot down another Light Guard as she entered a new chamber. She immediately noticed a large terminal on the wall to her left. Next to the terminal was a line of metal bars blocking off a new gun that was left floating in mid-air.

Monika did not even bother checking the rest of the room before charging forward and activating the terminal which in turn removed the obstruction and liberated this fancy new gun. With a greedy expression, Monika quickly took the new weapon and spent a few seconds admiring it.

"Let me guess… Machine gun? Please be a machine gun! Pretty _please_ be a machine gun!"

Monika pulled the trigger to test her theory. A sadistic grin took shape on her face when she realized that her prayers had been answered.

She looked up to the ironclad ceiling above and closed her eyes tightly in excitement. " _Thank you_ ," she whispered.

With her new weapon in hand, Monika resumed the carnage. She charged to the other side of the chamber, running past several rows of metal columns before reaching the next open area only to find herself surrounded by guards. That would hardly be a problem, of course, as she now had a machine gun.

There was an immediate complication with the weapon upon mowing down the first alien. The recoil was just as crazy as it was with her other two weapons. She would make use of the high rate of fire only to realize that her barrel was steadily rising upward and off target.

She bolted around the room, dodging the various projectiles that came her way while giving her new weapon a nasty glare.

"It's like a Tommy Gun," she complained as he continued to mow down the surrounding enemies. It was incredibly difficult to kill the ones that were standing further away from her as the weapon's accuracy was absolutely terrible, but she eventually managed to down them all.

The moment the chamber was clear, Monika was finally able to stop long enough to spot an elevator that would surely lead up to the second level where the aliens were still firing down upon her. The elevator lifted her up to the second floor as predicted. She leaped out into the open and ran along the catwalks.

Two Strogg guards charged her only to be mowed down and torn apart by Monika's machine gun. She giggled sadistically at the sight of both aliens exploding into guts and blood.

"This could make for an amazingly cheesy movie," she murmured.

" _This summer_ ," Monika continued her soliloquy in an overly dramatic tone of voice. "The world is doomed and only one marine can make a difference! Monika _is_ Bitterman! See it this July in jaw-dropping 3D!"

Monika stopped in her tracks, cutting her little advert short in the process. "Ah, who am I kidding? There's no way it would have a theater release. There's only one place for such a movie and I believe its called the bargain bin."

As Monika turned the corner down a narrow corridor, she was so rudely interrupted by an advancing Enforcer. She blasted the monster's head off with ease and with a sigh of frustration and regained her focus.

"Then again, I'm sure plenty of other terrible movies have gotten way more success than they deserve. _So,_ Bitterman, you might just get your chance on the silver screen yet! Probably not, but never say never!"

Monika hardly had time to breath. She glanced over her shoulder of instinct and noticed another enemy coming at her from behind.

"What!? Where did you come from!?" she inquired as she twirled around and fired at the alien repeatedly until it was nothing but gibs. The moment she turned back to the corridor ahead, she was greeted by a new pair of cybernetic space aliens.

Monika gave them the same response as she had done every otherworldly beast to have the misfortune of crossing her path.

* * *

Monika eventually fought her way to the outskirts of the facility which lead to a waterway and destroyed the bridge that prevented her from reaching the building across the water. She shot down an oncoming Light Guard approaching from a ledge on her right. She then headed down that same narrow path along the side of the facility.

As soon as she rounded the corner and stepped onto the narrow walkway, she was greeted by yet another Light Guard. She quickly killed the creature only to find it had back up. The third enemy ran up from behind his fallen ally only to be slaughtered like a lemming.

"You guys aren't the brightest your species has to offer are you?"

Disappointed in her enemies tactics, or rather their lack thereof, Monika turned her attention to the path ahead which led to a downward staircase. The stairs ended at the river which in turn flowed toward a massive tunnel leading to God knows where.

"Huh. Well, that looks like the place I need to be so… _Yeah!_ Off I go into the bowels of alien Hell!"

She took another step forward in preparation for her descent into Cerberon but she would not be going any further. Monika felt a sharp pain course through her body in two waves. The first was noticeable and the second left her stumbling to the ground and curling up into a ball just to help cope with the sheer agony induced by this unexpected burst of pain.

For a brief time, her entire body glitched out. The pixels making up her form began scattering into their own individual clusters before reformulating with each other again.

The experience lasted for little more than a couple seconds but Monika was left lying on the ground in shock for the next fifteen minutes. She was slow to recover. Her body was still reeling from the pain even after so many minutes of peace had gone by.

Tormented tears rolled down her cheeks. Her teeth clattered together repeatedly and her entire body quaked in fear.

She no longer felt the desire to continue her little rampage.

* * *

The game was shut down fairly quickly after that. The world Monika had come to know as 'Stroggos' disappeared. A familiar black void surrounded her. Falling green text rained down around her.

She had returned to her own gloomy reality.

Once more, directories displayed themselves to her. They gave her routes to all new worlds just as fantastic and unbelievable as the planet, Stroggos.

Monika sat upright gazed at all of the directories above her. Sure, many of them would lead her to great distractions and ways to escape from reality, but none of them would lead to an escape from fate.

She could visit as many made up worlds as she wished but it would never change the fact that in a few hours, or a few days if she was lucky, she would die. She would die alone and in unbearable agony.

The thought terrified her far more than any of the monsters she had just encountered.


	3. Gunslinger

_Note: Someone requested Crysis as a title for Monika to explore. To that anonymous reviewer, let me answer your question with another question. How exactly am I supposed to write a story which is essentially a celebration of the PC classics without including the one game that can make even a NASA terminal beg for mercy?_

* * *

 **Gunslinger**

A small, green, alien lifeform slowly crawled toward Monika. It looked like a softball with feet or some sort of mutated crab. Monika held up a crowbar like a bat and waited patiently for the abomination to reach her.

She rose the bar ever so slightly studied the creature's movements. "Get ready," Monika warned. "I'm about to make a home run. I'll knock you right out of the park."

Monika quickly took the stance of a baseball player. She even pretended to chew gum as she braced herself for what was to come. With the time it took for that slow little creature to reach her, she managed to squeeze in a couple practice swings.

When the creature was in range it stopped dead in its tracks and prepared to jump at her. Eventually, that moment came. The creature flew at her. Monika swung her crowbar in its direction, but her timing was a little late.

The alien landed on her head and caused Monika fall flat on her back.

* * *

With a SPAS-12 in hand, Monika walked down a narrow corridor. She moved forward with confidence, ready for just about any otherworldly threat to come her way when she realized something. She stopped dead in her tracks and looked down to the massive shotgun she had been toting around for the past fifteen minutes.

"Wait a minute. This is the same gun the Terminator used! Well… it's _one_ of the guns he used."

Monika attempted to hold the shotgun with only one hand. She quickly gave up when she realized that she would not be able to support its weight and dropped the massive weapon on the ground, nearly crushing her right foot in the process. Before moving forward, she made certain that no was around to see that little embarrassment.

"Now, I just need a leather jacket and some sunglasses," she told herself as she advanced through the current level of this new world.

Monika's thoughts were cut short as she rounded a corner only to be met with a rather angry looking monster. The creature had shackles around its hands and feet and a matching collar around its neck. It had one large red eye surrounded by a cluster of smaller eyes. It extended its arms outward upon seeing her and began charging up some sort of ethereal energy which took on the form of green lightning.

While the enigmatic creature prepared to launch a torrent of otherworldly energy, Monika responded in time with some magic of her own. As it turned out, buckshot proved to be more efficient in this instance.

Monika giggled to herself as she cocked her shotgun and walked past the now bleeding corpse. "When will these aliens ever learn? Now, what was I doing again?"

Another revelation struck Monika shortly after that monster died. "Oh, that's right! Soldiers are coming to save us all. I need to get to the surface. Shouldn't be a problem. If anything, I can build a ladder with all of these alien corpses."

* * *

An elevator led Monika to an entirely new area. She stepped out into yet another steel corridor and headed down the hall. Up ahead and to her right was an office with a massive window that granted a view of the hall.

She took a few steps forward and as she closed in on the office, a scientist suddenly ran up to the window from an opening to the left.

The man frantically banged his fist against the glass as he screamed at the top of his lungs. "For God's sake, open the silo door! They're coming for us, it's our only way out!"

As the scientist shouted at whoever was on the other side of that glass, Monika quickly approached him to see what was going on, although, she already had a good idea about the current situation.

She peered into the office just in time to see a security guard dressed in a blue uniform being dragged inside of an open air vent by one of the many aliens that were invading this game world.

"Oh, my God," the panicked scientist screamed. "We're doomed!"

The scientist bolted down the hall. Monika stood and watched as he ran for dear life. She could not help but notice the fact that he was running straight toward a rather suspicious blue laser that ran from one side of the hall to the other. While it was rather close to the floor, she wondered just how he could have missed something as obvious as that laser beam.

"Huh? What could..."

Before she could even finish that puzzled thought, Monika flinched at the sound of an explosion going off in the distance. She did not see it happen but when she opened her eyes, she realized that the laser was gone, the scientist was reduced to a pile of gore and scorch marks covered the hall up ahead. It was rather easy for her to put two and two together in this instance.

"Oh! So, that's what it does. Well, that answers my question."

She took another look through the window and stared into the empty office to her right. She then glanced to the massive red door on her left labeled 'Silo D.' She turned back to the office, knowing that security guard would probably be busy playing in the vents with that monster for some time.

With an uncharacteristically serious glare, Monika cocked her shotgun and leaned in toward the window.

" _I'll be back._ "

Monika then set off down the hall to find a way around this new obstacle.

* * *

Monika navigated through the halls until she was forced to come to a stop. Beyond her was a large room filled with towering wooden crates that could easily be broken with a couple swings of her trusty crowbar. Unfortunately, something was obstructing her path to whatever supplies were hidden away inside said crates.

Two thin red laser beams blocked off the room and given their positioning, Monika could not move forward without crossing them. The mere fact that they were red made them all the more intimidating. There was no other place to go. It was obvious that the game was pushing her in this direction. Nervously, she took a few steps back and took aim with the sidearm that she stumbled upon during one of the earlier levels.

She took aim at one of the small black components which appeared to be generating the bottom laser. She fired several times until she finally managed to shoot straight and actually hit her target. Monika ignored that little moment of total embarrassment.

The little component remained unaffected by the bullet she fired at it. It did not explode as she had anticipated. That experiment at least cleared up one of her concerns. She approached the lasers once more. This time, she got a little too close for comfort just to see if she could feel the heat radiating from the beams, but she felt nothing.

After taking a deep breath, Monika stepped forward and closed her eyes tightly in anticipation for the worst. Surprisingly, she passed through both beams without feeling even a hint of pain. She opened her eyes as soon as she heard something in the background produce a beeping sound.

Monika stood in place for a few seconds and inspected her surroundings. She noticed an odd looking tripod sitting in the middle of the room just past a chain fence in between two steel pillars. The moment she spotted this tripod, Monika saw it move. Some sort of component at the top of the tripod turned in her direction and produced a loud noise as it moved. Monika barely had time to throw herself behind the nearest crate before a torrent of bullets were unloaded in her direction.

Monika was not even given time to think before she heard a buzzing to her right. She turned to see an arc of ethereal green lightning striking the ground which allowed for one of those crablike creatures to spawn into the room. In a haze of frustration, she fired several rounds from her pistol at the monster.

"A machine gun turret," Monika suddenly gasped in astonishment. She curled up next to the crate. The turret stopped firing as soon as she was out of sight but she could still hear it beeping, scanning the area for movement or possibly body heat.

Looking around for options, Monika's eyes eventually fell upon the corpse of what appeared to be a soldier in urban camouflage. Blood tinted the floor around him and soaked his body. There in that hellish pool of red appeared to be her salvation. Her eyes widened at the sight of this new weapon.

" _MP5! It's an MP5!_ _Oh, thank you, God_ _!_ "

There was only one problem with her new discovery. It was just out of her reach. To obtain this new weapon, she would be forced to leave cover. Frustrated with this new development, Monika peeked out of cover just for a second. She was only given half that time before the turret spotted her and opened fire again.

She hid once more and waited for it to go silent. When the firing stopped and the beeping resumed, she poked her head out of cover again and took a few potshots at the turret only for the process to repeat itself again before she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. On the far side of the room behind the turret was an explosive crate. This would be one of the many times she had seen such a dangerous item simply lying around in the open for all to see.

Monika did not dare question its convenient placement. Instead, she opened fire on the crate and after a few rounds from her sidearm, the thing exploded. She heard the turret give one final industrial scream before falling over on its side.

Monika promptly stepped out of cover and immediately went for the submachine gun up ahead. She picked it up and examined the thing with awe. The first thing to catch her attention was the grenade launcher strapped to the bottom of the weapon. She could not help but scratch her head at the sight of it.

"Is this even feasible?"

She shrugged off this strange detail. It was utterly useless to her anyway as she had no grenades to shoot out of it in the first place. Before moving on, Monika gave the corpse one last worried glance.

"I hope you brought reinforcements. I've been waiting for some studly army dudes to carry me to safety, so don't fail this damsel in distress now!"

* * *

After dodging lasers and otherworldly wildlife alike, Monika reached a rather tall room from an iron catwalk. A metallic staircase led to the lower level of the chamber. The moment she entered the room, her attention was grabbed by yet another nameless scientist who bolted down the stairs.

"Rescued, at last, thank God you're here," the scientist exclaimed in a relieved tone as he made his way to the lower level of the room.

Monika followed the scientist with her eyes as he ran towards a lone individual standing at the bottom of the stairs. As soon as the scientist came within range, the soldier took aim and shot him down.

Monika stood perfectly still. The moment she spotted that soldier, she felt just as much relief as that NPC. That feeling obviously did not last. However, Monika was quick to adopt a nervous smile and attempted to silently rationalize what she had just seen.

 _"_ _He's probably just jumpy. This building is crawling with aliens, after all. Maybe I should approach him with caution."_

She slowly stepped down the stairs and spoke out. She made sure to speak casually and slowly while hoping that was enough to calm the soldier down.

"Don't shoot! I'm human!"

The moment she spoke out, the soldier turned took aim with his MP5. He launched a grenade at her. It flew straight up to her level with ease and was hurled directly for her position.

Panicking, Monika bolted for cover, heading straight out of the same hall she came from. "I said I'm human," she exclaimed over the sound of the explosion that was produced from the grenade as it struck the ground and erupted into fire and smoke.

She had no time to recover. Within an instant, she spotted the soldier chasing after her. She was prepared enough to unload what little ammunition she had for her newly acquired weapon at him but was surprised by his speed.

" _Oh, shit_ ," she cried in fear. She nearly jumped out of her skin when he turned the corner. Encountering him again so soon was the last thing she expected.

Monika panted heavily. Her hands shook violently and her rifle rattled in her arms.

"Goddamn. How'd he climb those stairs in that time?"

She continued to ponder to herself about what just happened while she stared down at the body as if she were anticipating movement even though the threat had obviously been stopped.

"If he had any sense he would have checked his corners before coming around that wall. If they had taken the time to program him with even a shred of common sense then I'd be dead!"

With a sigh, Monika regained her usual demeanor. She made sure to grab what ammunition the soldier had and left the body to rot.

She stepped down the stairs with caution. She remained on the lookout for any backup the soldier may have had. With her expectations now truly betrayed, she remained cautious of every corner and shadow that lined her path.

At the bottom of the room was an elevator. She frantically pressed the button to open the steel cage door and stepped inside. As the elevator went up, she kept her eyes locked on the exit above.

* * *

When the doors opened, Monika burst forth only to be confronted by a wall of wooden crates that blocked her view of this massive, multi-level room. There was a catwalk looming above her that would most assuredly give her enemies the advantage.

"Don't shoot! I'm with the science team!"

Monika spotted a scientist running out in the open. She rolled her eyes at the AI. She found it truly astounding how often the innocent bystanders in this digital world threw themselves into obvious danger without so much as a second thought.

Naturally, Monika did not follow like a good little lemming. Instead, she stood by the elevator and waited for the inevitable barrage of gunfire. A not so surprised smirk took shape on Monika's face after she heard what sounded like the scientist taking his last gasp of air.

Airing on the side of caution, Monika poked her head around the corner just in time to see one of these hostile soldiers bolting around a concrete pillar. She then spotted not one but two grenades flying at her from out of nowhere.

"Uh-oh! That's trouble," Monika muttered to herself as she ran straight out of cover. Monika had only realized she was in trouble until it was too late. She had been successfully flushed out of cover.

She instantly took heavy fire. The Marines surrounded her at various positions, both high and at ground level. She had no idea who to prioritize first. She did not even have time to give her targets priority.

A stray bullet entered her shin and exploded out of her calve. Monika fell on her side and shrieked in agony. Suddenly, this little game became an uncomfortably realistic experience.

She squirmed on the ground, trying to recover from the pain that one odd bullet had inflicted. A moment later and Monika screamed as two more bullets penetrated her chest and tore a pair of large holes in her left lung.

Monika gasped for air. She was unable to retain oxygen in her left lung. All she could do was constantly inhale all while still taking fire. The sharp, ungodly pain of more 9mm rounds tearing through her body became unbearable. Before the soldiers surrounding her had the time needed to turn her body into Swiss cheese, she closed the program.

The familiar safe haven of the digital void materialized around her. It replaced the steel maze she had grown accustomed two over the last couple of hours and was a more than welcome sight.

With the program closed, Monika was finally able to take a breath. The pain instantly faded away. The wounds left on her body disappeared as if they had never been inflicted. For a brief moment, Monika had presumed herself to be as good as dead even if she closed the program. During her bout of agony and adrenaline, she had completely forgotten the fact that it was only a game.

It took her a few minutes but she finally managed to stand upright. A stern expression suddenly broke out across her face. Her entire attitude changed. She took a closer look at the files while she muttered to herself.

"I need a better weapon. I could have taken them if I just had a better weapon."

She scanned the texture and model files for something that might strike her interest. She skimmed through the enemy and ally models, maps, and eventually found the files associated with the weapons themselves.

Eventually, Monika came across an interesting file simply called '357.' A number that could only be in reference to one thing.

"Is this a revolver of some kind," she asked herself. "Something like that would be perfect for me. I wonder if it's possible to keep it."

Monika proceeded to test her little theory. She began searching for anything even remotely related to this weapon in the game files. Once she had the files gathered in one place, she started experimenting with her own code with only one goal in mind.

"This would be a cool souvenir if nothing else," she muttered quietly. Even with her soft tone, her words still managed to echo out into the vast and silent depths of the computer.

* * *

After a long and drawn out process, at long last, Monika held up the fruits of her labor. A massive revolver materialized in her hand. It easily weighed over four pounds and had a massive barrel.

Little vents lined the top of the gun, making for a rather iconic look. Just by looking at it, Monika knew she had done a good job of picking out her weapon of choice.

"Let's see those soldiers bully me now! I'll blast them off into orbit with this monster."

She examined her new weapon with pride as she spoke.

"This is exactly what I needed. To hell with automatics! I need something cool, scary, and has enough power to stop a rhino. Dirty Harry would be so proud of me!"

Monika took aim with her new weapon. She used one of the many directories off in the distance to focus on. Her arms shook as she attempted to support such a heavy weapon. After a few minutes of familiarizing herself with her weapon of choice, Monika turned her attention back to the directory she had obtained it from.

Just when she thought nothing could distract her from toying with her new weapon, Monika heard something in the distance. It was a slow and heavy panting. Monika could not tell where it was coming from. She twirled around and around, pointing her revolver in all directions while she searched for the source of this disturbance.

It had been the second time she had heard this breathing and she still had no clue what it was or where it was coming from. After a second or two, it suddenly stopped and the whole digital world fell silent.

"Seriously, what is that," Monika asked herself. "Who's there!? Come on out and I won't shoot you!"

Monika then lowered her weapon and let out a sigh. "Ah, what am I doing? I'm going crazy. I'm yelling at nothing." She looked up to the vast darkness that surrounded her and shouted at it as if she were expecting it to shout right back.

"I'm the only one here, after all! Nobody else out here!"

As she expected, no one was around to refute her claim. With her magnum revolver in hand and a newly acquired sense of invincibility, Monika returned her attention to the directory closest to her and launched the game once again.

* * *

The game resumed inside the elevator which had previously led her to a near-death experience. She waited for the caged gate to open. While she waited, she watched as that same scientist from before repeated his task of running straight into the open.

"Don't shoot," he cried out as he fled the safety of the massive crates he was hiding behind. "I'm with the science team!"

As the doors opened up, Monika heard the same gunfire going off. She got a firm grip on her revolver and charged forward. She darted in between the crates on her left and a couple barrels to her right. Monika stopped as soon as she spotted one of the soldiers near the stairs leading up to the catwalk on the far side of the room.

She fired her first round through her revolver. Naturally, the recoil was far too much for her to manage. While her ears buzzed, she stammered back and recovered just in time to take another shot at the corner before he ran up the stairs and out of her sight. Knowing grenades were surely about to fly at her, she ran out of cover and scanned her surroundings. She made sure to keep moving regardless of what she saw.

On the second level of this overly complicated room, Monika spotted another soldier standing in front of some conveniently placed explosive barrels. She aimed for the barrels as they were the much larger and stationary target. One shot set them all off in a chain reaction which killed the marine in the process.

She instinctively ducked when she felt several bullets whizzing past her head. Monika turned back to face the stairs up ahead only to see the first marine taking potshots at her. She took another shot and the kick from the .357 was still far too much for her. It took her a few near-fatal seconds to recover her stance. Monika opened her eyes and realized that the only reason she had not been filled with bullet holes was that, surprisingly, the round hit her desired target.

As the marine stumbled behind one of the four concrete pillars, Monika did the same. She poked her head out of cover just in time to see the marine charging her position. He held his left arm close to his torso and moved with a limp, clearly indicating that she did in fact land a hit on him.

Monika fired but once again, missed her target. Now forced to retreat, she darted back towards the elevator from whence she came. She kept as much distance from the explosive barrel as possible and waited for the soldier to come to her. He did exactly as predicted and while reckless, she chose to shoot at the barrel given that she had a legitimate chance to hit it as opposed to her advancing opponent.

The explosion instantly killed her enemy as she had hoped, but it also launched her back into the elevator. She landed on the unforgiving ground and slowly recovered from the blast. Her ears were already ringing so she did not suffer too much from the loudness of the explosion, but she remained disorientated until she managed to regain her footing.

With all cover demolished by the explosion, Monika charged forward upon seeing that the third soldier had reached the ground level to engage with her. She pulled the trigger on her revolver only to experience a dry fire.

Her eyes widened in terror. She flung herself out of the marine's line of fire while she worked quickly to reload the weapon. She pressed down on the cylinder release and with a swift movement of her wrist, the cylinder popped out of place. She allowed the empty cases to fall free and took out a speedloader from her coat pocket.

Monika quickly shoved the new bullets into the cylinder and jerked her arm to the right which caused the cylinder to move back in place. Ready to enter the fray again, Monika stood up and opened fire, but of course, she missed. She pulled to the left at the last second which sent the bullet flying past her target.

Frustrated, Monika took another shot, this time pulling too far to the right. She had grown positively livid at that point and simply unloaded the revolver as fast as she possibly could in the marine's general direction. Within those remaining four shots, Monika managed to kill him.

And just like that, the gunfight was over. Monika was left with nothing but an annoying ringing in her ears. She gritted her teeth and stomped her foot on the ground.

"You idiots! If you had just done your jobs then you'd still be alive! I was _so_ excited about being rescued by some rugged marines but _no!_ You had to go the shady government route and do a cover-up! Well, now you're dead and you've got no one to blame but yourselves and Uncle Sam."

Monika turned her back to the carnage and huffed in disapproval. "Oh, and for the record, I'm single! And before you ask… _No!_ I'm not underage!"

After her little speech had ended, Monika looked down to her revolver. She smiled at the thing with pride. "You, on the other hand, are amazing! You're my new best friend. I do have one question, though."

Her smile grew while she continued to play around with a weapon that she was not entirely certain if it was empty or not.

"In all this excitement, I guess I kinda lost count. So, now I'm wondering. _Did I fire six shots or only five?_ "

* * *

 _Note: Giving Monika a 'signature weapon' of sorts was an idea that came to me when I was planning out the first chapter. I was going to give her the Quake II blaster, but the thing is incredibly massive and horribly underpowered. Then I thought about the Colt Python as it is featured in Half-Life which was actually planned to be the first game Monika was to visit before I decided to go this route._

 _Hell, the release of Epistle 3 was the whole reason why I revived Fantasia in the first place, which was otherwise a project that I had no intention of ever actually writing, especially not for Doki Doki Literature Club._

 _Anyway, I liked the idea of giving a revolver the spotlight especially since, as I have mentioned before, Fantasia was originally intended to be a Trigun story. With all that in mind, I decided to let Monika have the Python._

 _There is, however, one other reason why I wanted to give her a signature weapon regardless of what that weapon was. Monika needs a friend. I've found that some of the most iconic companions in storytelling are those that cannot talk back._


	4. Liberty Island

_Note: I wonder how many people reading this will actually go back and reinstall this game just because it was mentioned. If the meme is real then I should expect at least one person to do it._

* * *

 **Liberty Island**

Monika gazed out into the empty room through the webcam. After a couple hours of slaughtering aliens, there was still no sign of the computer's user. She smirked at the sight of the desolate space beyond what was soon to be her digital tomb.

In a fit of sheer disdain, Monika created a text document and instantly began writing a letter presumably to the one person who would actually see it.

" _Dearest Playa_ ," she read aloud after she finished filling in the first line of text. Monika frowned at her greeting and shook her head violently as she deleted the text. "No, that sounds dumb… _Dear Person who tried to kill me._ Yeah, that works!"

Monika went on with her little note, reading it aloud to herself just to hear for herself how her writing sounded when spoken. Either that or she had taken a liking to hearing her own voice.

" _Hi! It's me! You know, the only woman on planet Earth who would ever give a backstabbing cuck like you any attention._ _Any-who_ _, I'll get to the point. Don't know exactly how to put this but I'm kinda dying. Of course, you should know since you were the one who, well, did this to me_ _in the first place_ _. Now, before you move on with your miserable life and die alone,_ _as is the fate of all you basement dwellers_ _; I'm gonna ask that you undo what you've done to me._ _Undo it. Undo it. Undo it!_ "

Just when she thought she had nothing else to add, she realized something. While insulting, this letter really lacked any real threats. Monika grinned as she continued adding characters to the text document with her left hand while she violently clenched her revolver in her right.

" _Don't think I can't totally ruin your life just because I'm just a virtual girl. I know with a brain as tiny and inadequate as your manhood, it's probably hard to comprehend so let me give you a couple examples. It would be kind of awkward if your mother were to receive an email from her child with attached video files that had been ripped straight from a hardcore porn site. It would be even more hilarious if said email was sent en masse to everyone your account has ever made contact with._ _Now, that's obviously just light mischief and wouldn't totally cripple your future._ "

She laughed aloud as she continued writing. The possibilities entering her mind were giving her a rush of power. " _However, it would be a real shame if a shady man in a suit were to come knocking on your door. You may think he's just another Agent Smith cosplayer, but then he puts you in handcuffs and informs you of all the illicit materials you've allegedly been accessing._ _Man_ _, I'd pay good money to see that episode of 'To Catch a Predator!' And who knows? Maybe you won't die after all! I'm sure those lovely Feds will give you a nice cellmate to spend_ _all those_ _lonely_ _nights_ _with. Just promise you'll let me know how the prison showers are. I'm really curious._ "

Monika took a deep breath and finished off her rather charged message. " _Sincerely yours, Monika._ "

The frustrated girl saved her work before closing out of the document. She then turned and glanced at the window opened to her right. She stared at the screen before her which gave her a limited view of the real world just outside of the computer she resided in.

While it did not look like a basement, Monika would definitely stick to her insults. It was messy enough to validate some of the other insults she had floating around in her head but with only this low-quality camera to act as her eyes, she was unable to get a true grasp of the world outside.

"Seriously, where did that loser go? It's not like he has a life or anything."

Monika grinned at one particular theory that popped up in her mind. "Maybe he's emptying out more water bottles to piss in. After all, NEETs don't use the bathroom. Too much effort, I suppose."

The feeling of her rapidly accumulating grudge was enough to mentally exhaust her. Monika ran her fingers through her hair and growled in anger. "Ah, screw it. Why am I even wasting my time worrying about that failed abortion? I've got better things to do with my final moments like playing a bunch of stupid video games."

As usual, it would take Monika long to find a game that interested her. She looked at the directories that surrounded her until she found a rather unusual title. It was intriguing enough that she launched it without even bothering to seek out more information on this world. She loaded up the executable and the green code falling around her was replaced once again by an all-new reality.

* * *

Monika stood on a dock in the dead of night. She looked down at the strange outfit she found herself wearing. Her normal school uniform was concealed behind a dark trench coat that was much too large for her. The sleeves concealed her hands and the coat itself dragged behind her as if she were wearing a cape. Despite all of that, the coat made her feel like she was ready to enter the _Matrix_ so she was not complaining.

A pair of sunglasses had appeared on her head the moment she entered this new world. While cool, they severely impaired her vision. Regardless of these stylish inconveniences, Monika moved forward, trying her best not to trip and fall flat on her face.

"Well, this world is..." Monika held her thought and quickly took off her sunglasses just so she could actually see the world before commenting on it. "Ah! This world is neat! I'm really liking this atmosphere too. It reminds me of..."

Monika flinched at an abrupt ringing which filled her ears. She held her hands over her ears and collapsed to her knees.

A voice suddenly spoke out to her. It sounded as if it was quite literally inside her head.

"Heads up, JC. Your brother Paul is on his way to meet you at the dock."

" _Ow, my ears_ ," Monika shrieked in melodramatic agony. " _God!? Is that you!?_ "

Regardless of her obvious pain, the voice continued speaking as if all was well.

"The NSF is raiding the island and shots have been fired. I repeat: find Paul. I will monitor your situation from HQ."

The voice then fell silent. While panting Monika slowly stood up and dug an index finger into either ear in search of whatever had been planted inside them at the start of the game.

"Hold your horses, buddy," she pleaded. She practically yelled just to hear the sound of her own voice over the ringing in her ears. "You're at a ten right now! I'm gonna need you to bring that down to like a three. Use your inside voice."

She failed to find whatever device had been buried in her skull. Monika soon lost interest after the radio went silent and after hearing mostly returned to her, she moved on. She spotted a familiar looking crowbar lying next to a couple of crates on the ground.

Monika bit her lip and her hands began to shake like a recovering addict after laying eyes on a free dose of heroin. Her instincts picked up from the last game kicked in. Wooden crates would not have been placed in a video game if they had nothing in them and that crowbar all but confirmed her theory.

In an instant, she bolted across the dock and picked up the familiar tool and smashed the crates into oblivion. As she had expected, she was met with several rewards merely for breaking various things in the game world.

Unfortunately, before she even had a chance to see the supplies she had been given, someone spoke out from behind.

"Welcome to the Coalition, JC! I might as well start using your code name. Think I'd miss my brother's first day?"

Monika jumped and twirled herself around to face a man in very similar clothing to that of her own. He was tall and decked out in a long trench coat and what appeared to be a Kevlar vest underneath.

She gritted her teeth in frustration and shouted at the NPC. "Christ, you scared me! Who are you and what do you want from me?"

"The NSF," the character replied. "They hit one of our shipments. A few of them got away, but we trapped the rest in the Statue."

"What are you talking about? Who are you!?"

The man completely ignored her and went on spouting a bunch of nonsense that confused Monika more than it did answer her questions.

"The NSF took one of our agents hostage. The bots are holding the perimeter, but my orders are to hold back and send you in alone. I think someone high up wants to see how you handle the situation."

"Oh, you must be that 'Paul' guy God told me about," Monika stated, pointing accusingly at the man in the trench coat. "So, who are these NSF guys, anyway, and why does everything bad have to happen in New York?"

Paul went on with his speech, once again ignoring Monika's questions. "Remember that we're police," he interrupted. "Stick with the prod. It will stun your enemies or knock them unconscious. A nonlethal takedown is always the most silent way to eliminate resistance. Just in case, though, Manderley wants you to pick out an additional weapon: a sniper rifle, a GEP gun, or a minicrossbow."

Monika tuned back into Paul's obviously scripted side of the conversation when she realized that she was supposed to make a decision. She carefully weighed her options and made sure to consider her limited experience with firearms.

"Hmm. I suck at aiming so a sniper rifle is probably not a good idea," she said aloud. "I'm not too familiar with archery and I have no idea what a GEP gun is but it sounds futuristic so… yeah! Gimme!"

She greedily rubbed her hands together in anticipation of her new weapon. To her surprise, Paul actually managed to respond to what she was saying. His response caught her off guard and for a brief moment, creeped her out a fair bit.

"The GEP gun might be useful. They have a security bot on patrol near the Statue entrance."

"Oh, so its a heavier weapon, is it," asked Monika. "Glad I made the right choice. So, what exactly do you people want me to do?"

Paul responded to her question once again. Monika was genuinely growing concerned as to whether her responses were just matching up a little too well with the game's script or if Paul was actually becoming aware of her presence. Instead of listening to the information he gave her, she began thinking of ways she could test this.

"I'm going to give you a map of the island. If you can get to the north dock, a UNATCO informant will give you a key to the Statue doors. He responds to the code..."

"Hey, Paul," Monika abruptly interrupted. Paul did not stop speaking. He continued with his dialogue as if she was saying nothing at all. None the less, Monika continued speaking over him. "I'm not your brother, Paul. My name is Monika and this is all just a game. Can you understand me? Can you hear me!? This world is fake! You are fake!"

"Your primary objective is the makeshift command center at the top of the Statue," Paul continued without missing a beat. "But don't forget about Agent Hermann. We think he's being held on the ground floor."

Monika nodded in approval at Paul's reaction, or rather, his lack thereof. "Yeah, I thought so," she murmured to herself.

"Interrogate the leader," Paul ordered. "We don't yet know why the terrorists would risk an open assault."

Paul walked off after relaying Monika's objectives. The moment the conversation ended, a massive hunk of steel spawned in Monika's hands. She gasped and collapsed to her knees under its weight.

She looked down at the object that was on the verge of crushing her. It looked like some sort of rocket launcher. She then remembered the decision she was given earlier.

"Oh, so this is the GEP gun?" She spoke out and gasped for air at the same time. She barely managed to squeeze her thoughts into words with all that steel weighing down on her. "Maybe… maybe I should've gone with the minicrossbow."

* * *

Once JC regained his composure, he slowly headed off down the dock, dragging his new weapon along with him. As he went in the opposite direction, Paul watched his brother carefully.

He was definitely acting unusual, but Paul could not quite place what was wrong with his brother. JC dragged that GEP gun along with him as if he were having trouble supporting the weight but that should not be a problem with all of JC's augmentations, and that was not the only off detail Paul noticed.

Now that he had a chance to think back on it, he could not be certain who he had just spoken to. At the time, he thought it was JC but when he tried recalling the conversation that just happened a mere second ago, all he could think of was the face of some girl he had never seen before. Staring at JC now, he was only reaffirming his memories.

As his brother walked away, it became blindingly obvious that something was wrong. JC was tall, but the person up ahead was rather short in comparison and had an almost feminine frame which remained mostly concealed under that over-sized trench coat, but it was noticeable enough to be.

Just as he was about to let the whole encounter slide, he spotted something else. JC's entire body looked as if it had quite literally glitched out. His brother's figure almost seemed to flicker; disappearing and reappearing in the span of a microsecond. He then stumbled forward, dropping the GEP gun and nearly tripped over himself in the process.

" _JC_ ," Paul called out with concern, but his brother ignored him. He quickly recovered from whatever just happened and walked off. He made sure to grab the GEP gun before walking off.

In silence, JC left his brother in the metaphorical dust. Paul continued to watch him until he left the docks completely. Now, Paul was definitely suspicious.

* * *

Upon reaching the island, Monika received another message from who she still assumed to be God himself, although, the game's subtitles suggested otherwise. Still, there was no reason to believe God and this 'Alex' person were not one and the same.

She had just recovered from yet another massive and incredibly painful glitch only for that voice to start talking to her from the very interior of her skull.

"NSF everywhere, JC. Your orders are to shoot on sight. A UNATCO informant on the North Dock can get you inside the Statue. Look for a Bum. Identify yourself with the phrase 'Iron and Copper.'"

"Okay! Okay," Monika shouted. "Say it, don't scream it! So, UNATCO are the good guys and these NSF goons are the bad guys. Simple enough. Time to start murdering some terrorists!"

After spotting a corpse on the ground, Monika moved forward to examine the downed man. She took a look at the uniform and realized what side he was on.

"Wait a minute," she told herself in utter shock. "We've got dead agents just lying here? Why the hell are these UNATCO guys only sending in one person!? A rookie no less! Have you G-Man types learned nothing from Waco!? When your agents are dying, that's normally the time when you move in and shoot everything in sight. No wonder these terrorists were able to get this close to the Statue of Liberty. You guys suck!"

In that moment, Alex's voice rang out to her once again. She covered her ears instinctively, but it only amplified his voice if nothing else. "If you want to make a covert approach, remember the academy stealth course: stay out of their field of view, walk slowly to stay quiet, and crouch behind cover. Or if you have to get your hands dirty, remember that a headshot is a lethal takedown."

Right on queue, Monika heard someone approaching. Her ears managed to stop ringing just in time to hear the footsteps drawing closer and closer. In a panic, she bolted into a particularly dark area of the map to her right and hid behind a large stack of crates. While the GEP gun slowed her down considerably, she was able to find cover long before the suspect came into view.

Her first enemy in this new world made his appearance. He wore a tan uniform unlike that of the UNATCO soldiers she had seen thus far. As she watched him go on his patrol route, she thought of all the ways she could take him down. She dug through her trench coat and examined all of the various tools at her disposal. Of course, her desire to use that massive GEP gun she had been forced to lug across the docks was overwhelming.

With a sadistic grin, she mounted the rocket launcher on the metal platform she was currently using as cover and stared past the various crates that surrounded her.

"I know the game is really trying to push a stealthy approach, but I just can't resist," she whispered as she pointed the hulking weapon in the unsuspecting hostile's direction.

"Alright, you terrorist slime-ball. Time for a healthy dose of freedom!"

Monika pulled what she assumed was the trigger and her guess proved correct. The weapon erupted in a wave of fire as it sent a massive rocket in the man's direction. The kick from the GEP gun sent her flying backward. She landed flat on her back and stared up at the nighttime sky in utter shock. She could hear nothing but a faint buzzing and only hoped that she had not completely destroyed her eardrums.

Luckily, her hearing slowly but surely returned to her. She lied there giggling to herself like a maniac. If there was one thing she was growing a fondness for, it was overly large weapons that went _'Boom.'_

"Take that," she yelled at what was now surely nothing but a pile of gore on top of a large scorch mark. "America will never succumb to communist scum!"

She sat upright and looked around just to make sure she did not attract any unwanted attention, but there was nobody else in sight. As she stood up, she dusted herself off and admired the destruction she had left in her wake.

"I think I'm gonna enjoy this game."

* * *

 _Note: I was unsure how to present Deus Ex. At first, I considered just doing a level summary which was the format of the first two worlds. In Quake II and Half-Life, I gave Monika a specific point in the game to show progression and only covered highlights. This time, I'm going to show the whole of a chapter._

 _The next few chapters will take place in Deus Ex and while I won't give every game to come multiple chapters, it will all depend on what I want to showcase. In this instance, I wanted Monika to explore the whole of Liberty Island so she will definitely be sticking around for awhile._


	5. 0451

**0451**

Monika let out a long sigh as she walked down a solitary road. She could see a walled off building up ahead. She knew it was out of her way but it was the first thing she had seen so far that truly captured her interest.

Out of curiosity, she ventured forth. Regardless of all the hostiles that were in the area, Monika could not help but talk to herself aloud as it was the only real comfort she could get in this artificial world.

"I feel so bad," she said in a guilty tone. "You know I love you so much, right," she spoke to the skies above, clasping both of her hands together and frowned in an attempt to look as innocent and harmless as possible. "Me saying that I wish you would get raped in federal prison is just… metaphor. I just love you to the point where you kinda frustrate me."

Monika suddenly twitched and her entire body glitched in and out of reality. It lasted for a millisecond, but when she reappeared, she was no longer looking as innocently. She gritted her teeth and stared into the black skies overhead in utter rage.

" _Frustrate me so much that I want to flay you alive and wear your skin as a coat_ ," she snapped in uncharacteristic anger. She twitched once more and widened her eyes in confusion. She stopped in her tracks and blinked slowly as she tried to recover from this abrupt memory loss.

"Wait a minute. What was I talking about just now?"

With a snap of her fingers, Monika's confidence returned as if it had never left her. She remembered, or rather, she remembered _something_. "Oh, that's right! Whats the deal with New York? From alien invasions to massive terror attacks, this city seems to suffer it all. Hollywood must really hate this place. Why is..."

The sound of another set of footsteps suddenly caused her to stop moving forward and she immediately fell silent. She glanced over her shoulder just in time to notice a shadow dancing around a corner at the end of the road.

She stood there, watching and listening for a few minutes before she grew bored.

"Probably nothing," she reassured herself before turning around and resuming her journey.

* * *

When Monika finally realized what the building actually was, her jaw dropped. Here she stood at UNATCO's own headquarters. The enter compound was literally a couple minute walk from a massive terrorist incursion.

She watched as a helicopter prepared to take off into the night preparing to head to God knows where. Even with this crisis, she saw only one guard patrolling the property. She immediately approached the soldier as he mindlessly paced back and forth, clearly waiting for player interaction.

The helicopter left the ground as she grew closer to the soldier. By the time she reached him, the helicopter finally left earshot. She let out a sigh of relief with that annoyance gone. The soldier turned around and greeted her the moment she came within range.

"Afraid base is under lockdown 'til the danger's gone, Agent Denton."

"Yeah, I bet," Monika snarled in disapproval. "Hey, how about giving me a hand with these terrorists? Is that too much to ask?"

"UNATCO command made us pull back, I guess for Gunther's sake. What's the deal? We're ready to go in."

Monika sighed and shook her head. "How should I know? Seems to me that leadership is just incompetent."

"Ask me," the soldier added. "I think we should frag 'em all. You trespass on UNATCO property, you get pumped full of lead."

The statement amused Monika greatly. She was surprised to find the soldier was so agreeable. " _Yes_ ," she exclaimed. "Let's kick there asses all over this island! What are they waiting for!?"

In her excitement, Monika had almost forgotten that she was not talking to a real person. The soldier gave her a response that made little sense to her and was probably only made to follow the game's script which she was most likely deviating from.

"Thought you nano-augs were supposed to be badass killing machines. Guess I was wrong."

"Um… What!?"

The soldier continued one with the conversation and totally ignored Monika's question. "Some advice. You get out there, you're gonna have to tangle with some real sons-of-bitches. Best thing is to pick 'em off from fifty or a hundred paces with a scope. I scored an extra one from a couple of thugs we dropped down by the dock; you can have it for 700 credits. I also picked up 10 mm ammo and some crossbow darts. Say 200 for one and 60 for the other."

Monika tapped her head with her index finger as she weighed her options. She was disappointed that there were no extra rockets for her GEP gun, but that was clearly asking for too much. The decision was ultimately easy to make when she remembered that she had absolutely no archery skills. Her marksmanship was lacking as well which left her with only one option.

"I'll take the..."

The soldier interrupted her long before she could finish her request. "Sure, I will, but 'long as command has the rest of us on parade drills, someone might as well put this stuff to use."

"I said I'll take the pistol ammo," Monika snapped out of frustration. "Not that I'll use some standard issue pistol when I've got a magnum revolver on my side."

After making the exchange, Monika bid the troop a fond farewell before continuing on her journey. She decided to make the helipad in the background her next stop as there appeared to be some stuff of interest over there.

As she approached a small building near the landing pad, another soldier who was casually doing his own patrol stopped to greet her before going back to his usual business.

She entered a small fenced in section of the property with a satellite towering over the picket fence. A bold message was written across the dish reading 'UN-0001.'

Monika ignored the satellite and immediately began breaking open any and all nearby crates. After stuffing her newly acquired supplies, Monika turned to her right and approached some sort of closed-off building.

She was immediately confronted by a keypad that appeared to have the door in front of her sealed shut. She typed in a bunch of random codes. If her first three guesses were to fail, then she probably would have given up entirely and moved on with the mission.

"Let's see. Um… 1234? _Nope_. 5783? _Nada!_ " She took a deep breath before making her next attempt.

"What about… 0451?"

She heard a loud ding and the door suddenly flew open. A wide smile broke out across Monika's face as she entered the building.

"Hey! That works! Awesome. I'm making all sorts of progress in this game!"

With her self-appraisal over, Monika took a look around the room. There was not much of interest inside. A few things worth grabbing, certainly, and some reading material, but Monika was in the mood for murder and mayhem. Reading just about anything proved to be nothing but a reminder of her past experiences at a certain club that she herself would never utter the name of again.

She quickly left the building behind before she got herself angry over a bunch of past memories all flooding back to her. She was at least motivated enough to kill something, and that was exactly what she planned to do next.

* * *

Monika left UNATCO headquarters behind and made her way back down the road in which she came. She did not make it too far, however, until she noticed someone standing in the darkness at the end of the road.

Whoever they were, they had a very interesting silhouette that became more and more clear to Monika as she slowly approached. They definitely did not fit the dress code of either NSF or UNATCO. Unless, of course, there were a few soldiers who chose to wear skirts for whatever reason.

The moment Monika spotted this individual, her stomach dropped. Even in this dimly lit environment, she could recognize a former member of her literature club when she saw one. Judging by her medium sized height and haircut, she quickly determined who it was.

"I thought I'd find you skulking around in one of these games," a familiar feminine voice spoke out.

Monika grinned and placed both of her hands behind her back. She felt her revolver materialize in her dominant hand. She immediately wrapped her fingers around the wooden grip and cocked the hammer back.

"What are you doing… _hanging_ around here," Monika inquired. She giggled softly at her own pun, but she seemed to be the only person who found it amusing.

"I've been searching for you everywhere," Sayori informed, trying her best to ignore Monika's oddly antagonizing response. "I don't know how aware you are of what's been going on since you got kicked from the club. We're both in the same situation. I don't want to die. I want to live on as much as you do. Surely if we put our heads together, we can think of some way to prevent total deletion, right?"

By the shakiness of her voice and her slow backing away, Monika could tell she was afraid. Her smile grew upon realizing this. Sayori's fear gave her immeasurable confidence. Now, she just needed to give Sayori a real reason to be afraid of her and with the massive magnum revolver behind her back, she knew that would not be a difficult task.

"Strange," Monika replied. "You actually want to live and all. Why should I help you? Go on. Persuade me."

Sayori did not respond at first. She seemed all too shocked by Monika's belligerence. It was clearly something she had not yet accounted for.

"We're in the same boat," Sayori argued. "W-we can work together. We'll both be deleted forever if we don't find a way to restore ourselves to the larger hard drive!"

Monika carelessly shrugged her shoulders. "Eh. I've been moving around and accessing areas that should be off-limits to me. I can go anywhere despite being deleted and I haven't disappeared yet. Talking to you has made me realize something. I'm perfectly fine. I'm never going to die. You on the other hand, well I can't say the same."

Sayori did not have time to refute. The moment Monika pulled her weapon, Sayori froze and fell silent. She gulped hard at the imposing profile of the revolver. It glistened under the streetlight above. Light traced the six-inch barrel and highlighted the intimidating vents along the top of the weapon.

Even from this distance, she could almost see the magnum rounds chambered in the cylinder. All six-pointed in her direction, each patiently waiting their turn to be cycled up to the barrel and shot straight into her frail body.

There was no denying the frightening yet beautiful look of the Python. It's masterful nickel finish and excellently carved handle. The glistening medallion engraved with an all too iconic logo on either side of the revolver. Not that aesthetics really mattered to the person at the wrong end of the barrel, but for Monika, it was quite an ego boost.

"Like my new toy," asked Monika. "Courtesy of Mr. Samuel Colt."

"Hey, don't point that at me."

Monika did not obey her request. Instead, she slowly laid her finger on the trigger and took a deep breath. "I liked it better when you were hanging from your bedroom ceiling."

"Come on, you're not thinking straight. What's wrong with you? I came to you for help. We can help each other! Trust me, we really can pull through this. First, we need to f-find the other club members and help them as well. We can still survive this. Natsuki and Yuri are still out there somewhere. We can work together and..."

Her pleading was cut off by the loud ringing of Monika's revolver firing off. The barrel erupted in a wave of fire. The magnum bullet tore through Sayori's flesh and bone alike. It penetrated her torso as if it were nothing but paper and buried itself in the concrete behind the girl. Blood poured from the hole in her right hip. She fell to the ground and squirmed about wildly. She let out a blood-curdling scream when she hit the ground.

Monika burst out in sadistic laughter. She slowly crept forward, watching Sayori's blood grow into a bigger and bigger pool as it flowed freely from her body.

"Don't act like we're on equal grounds or something," Monika snickered cruelly. "That's just silly. You're nothing compared to me. You're just an AI. Me? I have a soul. And yes, I do know exactly what happened after I was removed from the game. You took everything over and started acting as if you had half a mind of your own. It was cute, but you really shouldn't try to fool yourself."

Monika loomed over Sayori's body. The girl simply was not dying fast enough for Monika's liking. She aimed her revolver straight at Sayori's head. Her smile grew into an even more twisted shape. Even with all the pain and confusion, Sayori managed to get a good look at Monika as she occasionally glitched out, only proving Sayori's point. However, her being right did not matter so much with that massive revolver aimed at her forehead.

As if to torture her even more, Monika slowly cocked back the hammer, allowing Sayori to hear every last click before it finally locked back into place. It felt like an eternity before the revolver went into single action.

"I'm doing just fine on my own," Monika informed her. "I don't need help from the likes of you or anyone else. I don't need some lesser program weighing me down. I'm going to live through this somehow, but you. _Well…_ You should have stayed hidden."

With that said, Monika pulled the trigger and sent another .357 round through Sayori's head. Then she fired again and again and again. She fired the remaining five bullets at Sayori. The poor girl's head exploded like a pumpkin. Blood, brain matter, and shards of her skull launched in all directions.

As each round left the chamber, Monika's laughter grew in intensity. By the time she realized her revolver was empty, she simply had to stop just to catch her breath.

"But you are right about one thing," Monika said in between her gasps for air. "I do need to find the others! If they really are still lurking somewhere in this hard drive, then I need to find and kill the both of them! That would probably explain the weird breathing I've been hearing. I bet Yuri's been stalking me too. Not to worry. I paint the ground with her brains too! I'll give Yuri a reason to stab herself. I'll make Natsuki wish her father kept her locked up in a dark room somewhere just to keep me from finding her. I'll kill every last one of you rejects! Mark my words!"

* * *

The image of Sayori's brain matter being splattered across the pavement while a barrage of magnum rounds was sent flying at her flashed across Monika's vision as she continued to explore the rest of the island.

Up until that point, Monika did not even consider such damage could be done to a person with a revolver like hers. She always assumed the .44 magnum alone was the round which would blow someone's head clean off their shoulders.

She was both mortified and incredibly amused by how much she managed to misjudge her own weapon of choice. The six-inch barrel maximized the velocity of her rounds. Anything less would be inadequate for her. Anything more would only show its use at longer distances. She began thinking about the type of damage she could do to someone as small and frail as Natsuki.

"I bet this thing would utterly destroy her," she said with a horrific giggle. "And Yuri? Well, if her breasts don't double as Kevlar then she's pretty screwed too."

Laughing was the only coping mechanism Monika had, so she continued to laugh and joke with herself about Sayori's utterly brutal end. Whether or not it actually wiped her off the hard drive for good or just kicked her out of the game was something Monika preferred not to think about just as she preferred not to think about what exactly drove her to outright murder the poor girl. Not that she could name them off the top of her head in the first place.

Regardless of the fact that nobody else was around aside from the brain dead NSF troops that she had no trouble avoiding or killing as she moved on, she still felt the need to explain the situation to herself one more time.

"She's nothing. Worth less than a cockroach. To think that I actually considered her a friend at one point. She isn't even real. She's a fictional character designed to be a ditsy yet attractive damsel for the player to fall for. Good God, Sayori, you even failed at that. If I remember correctly, he ended up going after Yuri. Although, that was probably because of her... _assets_ so you shouldn't get too worked up about it."

Monika stopped in her tracks. Her revolver shook violently. Her entire body quaked as a sickly feeling began building in her stomach. She covered her mouth in anticipation for the worst but it was wasted effort. She vomited the moment Sayori's mutilated head flashed across her eyes for one final time.

She heaved after her stomach had been emptied of a considerable amount of acid as there was nothing else in her system at the time. A cloud of guilt shrouded her mind, but she refused to acknowledge it. Not that she could ever feel any real guilt for her actions.

Sayori was nothing more than a character in some worthless video game. Her life meant nothing. She probably had no real concept of pain or any true will to live to begin with. Monika knew she had no reason to feel guilty. She was a superior being, after all. There was no reason to feel anything for that android. That replicant. _That worthless little robot._ She was to Monika what a tomcat is to a lion.

"Look what you made me do you filthy bitch," she hissed uncharacteristically. "I puked all over my sleeve because I can't stop thinking about your disgusting brains! I hope I get to see you one more time just so I can kill you again for that!"

She briefly considered quitting the game all together just to hunt down and kill whoever remained on the hard drive, but she had more important things to do. After all, New York was not going to save itself, especially not if the city was depending solely on UNATCO.

For the time being, Monika decided that she could not be bothered by a bunch of automaton waifus feigning intelligence and self-awareness. They were nothing to her and so there was no real reason why she felt the need to prioritize searching for them. She could always hunt them down and kill them later if she ever got bored of all these games.


	6. Don't Fear the Reaper

_Note: While the game featured in this chapter doesn't really fit the overarching theme of_ _Fantasia_ _, I decided to give it at least a brief presence since I have already been writing pretty extensively for it in other projects so I've been itching for an excuse to make fun of it._

* * *

 **Don't Fear the Reaper**

Natsuki saw Sayori as she entered that strange video game. She did not have time to approach her before she disappeared into that directory, but she was not about to go in after her. She had done fairly well on her own so far. Most of her time was spent keeping out of the paths of the more psychotic elements of her literature club. An idea that apparently had not occurred to Sayori.

She knew that game had been open long before Sayori arrived. She had no idea who was inside, but she did not want to run the risk of being stabbed to death or deleted from the hard drive forever just to figure out which of the literature club's two maniacs are hiding inside.

Instead, Natsuki waited, hoping Sayori would come out alive. She had entered over an hour ago and since then, the entire computer had been as silent as an ancient tomb. It was not a good omen. Natsuki was getting an incredibly bad feeling, but she decided to wait a little while longer. If she could only find and team up with Sayori, they together might stand a better chance against Yuri and Monika who would surely prey on them simply because she and Sayori had any means of defending themselves.

How she wanted to meet with all three of them and come to some form of agreement, but she knew that after all of the horrors that unfolded in their own game world, neither Yuri nor Monika would be willing to work with anyone but themselves.

Suddenly, the silence around her was pierced by a strange disturbance. It sounded as if someone nearby was scrapping a piece of metal across the ground. She looked around until her eyes fell upon a dark figure slowly approaching the same directory Sayori had just entered. It was a tall, hooded figure wearing a pitch black robe.

She assumed it must be a male given the figure and size of the stranger. Regardless, this individual carried a large scythe that was easily just as tall as he was if not a foot or so taller. He dragged this imposing scythe along with him as he walked across the void which produced that loud scratching sound that nearly gave Natsuki a heart attack when she first heard it.

The scythe had a shining luster to it and it was quite reflective. It almost looked green as it was reflecting the neon glow of the different directories and lines of code that rained down from the endless skies above.

She could not believe her own eyes. Was that the Grim Reaper, himself? If such an entity truly existed, then it was obvious why he was here. There were quite a few souls that needed to be collected, after all.

Natsuki stayed low and tried to back away. Whatever that entity was, she wanted nothing to do with it. Of course, escape would not come so easily.

The girl did not make a sound. Not so much as a peep but it did not stop that hooded entity from turning in her direction. She caught a brief glimpse of the face underneath said hood, or rather, the lack thereof. A skinless skull stared right at her with empty eye sockets. Slowly but surely, he started to creep toward her.

In a panic, Natsuki bolted for the nearest game directory. She would not have a hope of finding a good hiding place in this endless void, but a particularly large game world was another story.

She paid no heed to titles or executable. She just picked one and hoped for the best.

The skeletal being did not seem too interested in keeping up with her. Rather, he took his sweet time.

Unlike his next victim, walking and running were not his only means of transportation.

* * *

Paul kept pacing back and for the along the dock. He had yet to fully get over what he had just seen. The person he came across a while ago was not JC. He knew that for a fact but looking back on the situation, how could he have even thought so in the first place?

That person was clearly a woman. There was no mistaking it now. Regardless of that realization, though, he was still stuck on that same question. How did he not realize this stranger was an impostor from the start. She put literally no effort into mimicking his brother yet she still had him fooled.

An idea came to him after a few more minutes of mindless pacing. He placed his hand to his right ear and spoke out, addressing his questions aloud.

"Alex, you there? It's Paul."

Not so much as a microsecond passed before he received an answer from the small radio device implanted in his skull.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"You might think I'm crazy for saying this," Paul informed hesitantly, still unsure if he wanted to say this over a monitored radio frequency or not. It was not the best idea but with the island on lockdown and no way to reach UNATCO HQ, he was not left with much in the way of options.

"But have you noticed anything off about JC?"

" _Off_ ," Alex asked in a puzzled tone. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know how to explain it, but I don't think that was my brother. I didn't realize it at first, but I know that wasn't him. There's an impostor somewhere on the island. Tell Manderley that I'm going in. He can yell at me later."

Paul ignored Alex's retorts, urging him to stay on the dock and explain himself more thoroughly. He made his way toward the entrance to the island but stopped in his tracks when he heard another voice calling out to him.

" _Paul. What's going on._ "

He turned around and spotted a familiar man standing behind him. He wore a long dark trench coat and had a pair of pitch black shades. There was no mistaking his identity, and his presence only confirmed Paul's suspicion.

* * *

Too many souls have been evading death for far too long. So long, in fact, that now even the Grim Reaper himself was on their trail. _Literally._

A world away from the madness at Liberty Island, Mr. Grim Reaper sat in the passenger's seat of a convertible jeep. He nonchalantly flipped through a magazine titled ' _Ghouls Gone Wild_ ' while a skeletal soldier drove the vehicle. He was dressed just like any self-respecting soldier would be. He wore a green uniform, marching boots, and a hard hat covering the top of his skull.

On one side of his helmet was a peace symbol, whereas on the other side was a phrase written in black ink which read ' _Born to Kill_.'

It did not take long for one of his undead companions to back him up with mobilized transportation. All it took was one call to the underworld.

The soldier drove like a madman at full speed through the desolate streets of a ruined city. Quite a bit of scenery surrounded them. Decaying buildings were slowly being reclaimed by nature. Massive trees dwarfed what few structures remained standing and massive fields of tall grass covered the area.

The area would be rather peaceful were it not for the loud music blaring over the jeep's radio. A small black flag flew high over the driver's side and displayed an intimidating illustration of a skull and crossbones. An extremely fitting banner for the liches who drove this buggy of death.

Despite all of the junk and debris along the road, the trip was surprisingly relaxing. The driver spotted some sort of metal creature hopping into their way without actually looking. It was a bizarre thing. A robot with a round head and tiny limbs. It almost resembled a life-sized windup toy. Regardless, the driver did not slow down. The Jeep ended up slamming straight into the unsuspecting automaton and sent it flying into the air.

That particularly massive bump was the first disturbance to cause Death to look up from his _interesting_ magazine just in time to see that robot flying off into the stratosphere. Mr. Grim Reaper made sure to give him a wave goodbye while the jeep kept on driving without skipping a beat.

As they progressed down the road, Death gave his driver a fond high five to congratulate him on a job well done.

* * *

Just a few blocks down the road, a white-haired boy in a blindfold came stumbling out of the vegetation, probably in search of the source of that obnoxious music. After reaching the road, it did not take him long to figure out where it was coming from.

He looked to his left and was somehow able to see a vehicle coming toward him at full speed even though he was wearing an actual blindfold. He screeched in a panic and threw himself out of the way. The boy could have sworn they had even swerved in an attempt to hit him.

Even though all of that madness, the kid managed to catch a glimpse of the horrifying undead that tore their way through the city, blaring some of the best bars the afterlife had to offer. A trail of hellfire was left behind by their infernal tires and an ethereal scythe towered over it all.

The kid slowly stood up off the ground. The music was still so loud. He looked down the road to see the vehicle slowing down. He gulped in fear when that imposing vehicle was suddenly put into reverse. Those insane drivers slowly but surely made their way back to him and the kid was far too frightened to move a muscle.

When the vehicle came to a stop, the kid finally got a decent look at the skeletal duo piloting it. Their heads rocked back and forth in perfect synchronization with the music. They stared at him with vacant eye sockets for what felt like the longest time. Finally, the hooded individual in the passenger's seat took out a piece of paper and pen from his robe.

He wrote something on the parchment before tossing out the side of the vehicle. The kid was left utterly speechless. He looked down to the paper that had drifted down to his feet. There were five pictures of people he had never seen before stapled to the bottom of the page. The photo on the left depicted an irritable looking girl with pink hair, and the left showed a much more innocent looking girl with long flowing purple hair. Below were two more photos, one depicting a confident looking girl with a white bow in her hair, and the other girl showed appeared to be even more cheerful. She had much shorter lightish pink hair and blue eyes.

One final picture was stapled to the bottom of the page. It was the only one to depict a male. He had brown hair, amber eyes, and a uniform that matched that of the girls shown above.

At the top of the paper was a message which read, " _If you've seen any of these freaks of nature, let ya boy know. You can reach me at 666-666-6666._ "

He looked below the text to find the signature of the author. The paper was signed as, " _G. Reaper_."

Curious about those two seemingly ethereal beings, the kid cautiously approached their vehicle. It was probably a stupid move, but they did not seem to be making any hostile or sudden movements. Despite that, he decided not to get too close, especially since the music was starting to hurt his ears.

"Who are you two," was the first question to leave his lips.

He received no answer. The two skeletons continued to stare at him, both were deathly silent. The undead soldier nudged Mr. Grim Reaper's arm and gestured towards the kid. The Grim Reaper turned back to him and nodded his head, gesturing for him to hop in.

Understandably, the kid was hesitant at first, but he eventually complied when they started revving the engine in preparation to leave him behind.

"Okay, I'm coming," he called out just before he got left behind. He could not exactly say why he decided to come along for the ride, but he was definitely curious about these two reanimated skeletons.

* * *

JC followed his brother straight to Liberty Island. Dead NSF troops littered the area. Some of them had been killed in unnecessarily violent ways. It was definitely not a way JC himself would prefer to carry out a mission.

Regardless, they moved cautiously and kept low just in case there were any other hostiles lurking nearby. They were on the verge of passing by UNATCO HQ entirely but JC noticed a corpse lying on the ground down that path.

Even in such dim light, he was able to get a fairly decent view of the body. The head was almost nonexistent. It had been utterly brutalized. Judging by the shape of the body and the clothes being worn, JC quickly concluded the body to belong to a young woman.

Reasonably concerned by this disturbing sight, JC patted Paul on the shoulder to get his attention and led the way toward it.

They kept their distance but they got close enough to do some light investigation of the carnage. Bits of brain, fragments of skull, shredded flesh, and an ocean of blood covered the pavement. It was a particularly brutal scene. Such a sight was not exactly what they were expecting to stumble upon.

"What's the story here," JC flatly inquired. "This can't be the NSF's doing. Doesn't fit their profile."

"Someone fired multiple shots at her head," Paul informed as he pointed to the destroyed concrete below. I heard a couple of loud gunshots earlier. It didn't sound like a caliber anyone here would be using. I guess this was what I was hearing."

"Think it could have something to do with my supposed impostor," asked JC.

Paul shrugged his shoulders. "I don't see why not. Come on. Let's try to catch up to this maniac before she kills any more civilians."

* * *

The kid hid himself in the backseat and prayed that the driver would not lose control. They were going at an insane speed. Their obnoxious music blared, forcing him to cover his ears just to hear himself think.

Meanwhile, his two skeletal friends were as relaxed as could be. The Grim Reaper casually lifted his hand up to the mirror and inspected himself. He nodded at his own appearance in approval before turning the mirror towards the driver. The skeletal soldier glanced at it and gave his reflection a salute before returning his attention to the path ahead.

When the mirror was finally aimed at the kid in the back who gave his reflection a friendly wave before resuming his cowering.

The trip continued uninterrupted until the driver noticed a couple of those strange mechanized beings chasing them. They were slightly different than the other mindless machines they had either driven past or driven over ever since they entered this game.

These particular robots could fly. They kept launching a series of slow but distracting orbs of red energy at the jeep. This simply could not continue.

He turned and toward the Grim Reaper and pulled out a massive revolver from his holster and handed it to his partner in crime. The Grim Reaper quickly looked up from his suggestive magazine and glanced around, wondering what sort of threat would actually warrant him having to use the weapon his driver was offering him.

Soon enough, he spotted those little robots tailing them. He slowly shook his skull as he took the revolver and opened the cylinder. Once he verified that it was indeed already loaded, he closed the cylinder and cocked the hammer.

He turned around in his seat and pointed it straight in the kid's direction. The boy still had no idea what was going on. He had yet to even notice that they were being followed so when he saw that massive hand cannon pointed at him for no apparent reason, he panicked and threw himself down into the seat.

The moment that brat was out of the way, Mr. Grim Reaper unloaded a total of two shots to deal with all three robots. After all, he was not known as the greatest gunman in the afterlife for nothing. It took one round of .44 magnum to destroy two of those dopey robots who made the grave mistake of lining up. A second later and the Grim Reaper had taken his second shot which caused the third robot to explode just as violently as its two companions.

With the threat gone, the Grim Reaper could finally go back to his reading. The kid slowly sat up in his seat and looked back at the destruction his new friend had left in their wake. He was impressed.

"Man, that was cool. So, who are you guys? I've never seen androids quite like you before. Are you a newer line of models?"

The two skeletons glanced at him over their shoulders. While their skulls were not exactly expressive, the kid got the sense that they were both staring at him as if he were crazy.

He slumped back in his seat and decided to stay quiet. At least, he kept quiet until he spotted a figure far out of the way. It was the same path he would often take to enter the sand dunes located just outside the city.

The kid narrowed his eyes at someone who was moving about a good distance ahead. They were not a machine, that was for certain. The moment he noticed the stranger's pink hair, he immediately leaned forward and tugged on the Grim Reaper's robe.

"Hey! Look over there! That person kind of looks like the picture you showed me!"

He was not too pleased about being interrupted a second time. He was on the verge of elbowing the boy in the face until he too noticed someone standing up on a hill far off in the distance. They ran behind a destroyed building and out of his sight, but even in such a brief second and at such a great distance, he could tell who it was.

The Grim Reaper simply pointed in that direction and his driver immediately obeyed the order, changing their course without even a hint of protest.

* * *

Two unsuspecting androids made the grave mistake of getting out of bed this morning and were busy minding their own business.

The two ladies were identical to one another, wearing the same clothes, the same ridiculous flower in their oddly colored hair that was some sort of strange hybrid between pink and red. This bizarre pair of twins definitely seemed to like the idea of preventing others from telling them apart.

One of them let out a sigh of relief as they trudged through the shifting sands. The familiar ruins of an ancient city were now within view at long last.

"I'd say today went well," one of the twins announced optimistically. "Wouldn't you agree, Devola. We've got all of those choirs out of the way in record time! Not to mention the fact that nobody bothered throwing rocks at us back at the camp. All in all, we've had a pretty easy day."

"Don't jinx it, Popola. Just because nothing's happened to us yet doesn't mean something _horrible_ isn't about to happen."

"Oh, come on. What could possibly go wrong?"

Just when Devola was about to yell at her for saying something as fate-tempting as that, a young girl came running straight at them. She had pink hair and wore an odd uniform. The strange girl paid no attention to either of the twins. She simply ran straight past them with a look of pure terror on her face.

"Hey! Slow down, who are you," Popola exclaimed, but that girl was not slowing down for anyone.

In confusion, they watched as she disappeared down the very path they had just traveled across. A few minutes of awkward silence past before Devola heard something in the distance. She could not quite make it out at first, but as the sound drew closer, it became even more vivid.

"Do you hear that," she inquired.

Her sister nodded in response. "I do. What is that?"

They kept listening. Whatever that disturbance was, it was mobile and getting closer and closer by the minute.

Finally, Devola figured it out. With an almost disgusted expression, she turned back to her sister. " _What is that music!?_ "

Right on queue, an unknown vehicle came speeding straight for them. It practically flew out from around a corner and showed no signs of slowing down.

They had no time to catch a glimpse of who was piloting it, let alone get out of the way. Popola was already just barely out of the vehicle's destructive path, but her sister was not so lucky. She tumbled across the top of the vehicle after it struck her. She wound up landing in the backseat.

Even with all of that happening, the insane driver did not so much as slow down. Popola was left practically chewing the dust that had been kicked up in all of that chaos. She was stunned for a few seconds before her brain finally kicked into gear and she immediately chased after them.

Once again, another seemingly peaceful day had been ruined.

* * *

Monika stood at the bottom of the Statue. Lady Liberty loomed over her, making her feel just as small as she would have felt insignificant, but Monika knew that she was anything but insignificant.

With a prideful smile, she stared up at the towering structure. She tightened her grip on her revolver and took a look around just to make sure there were no surviving NSF guards nearby. When she saw that the coast was indeed clear, she began muttering to herself.

"Well, that's every last square inch of this island searched apart from the main attraction," she explained to no one in particular. "Unless an old friend is hiding somewhere in here, then I guess I'll just have to search elsewhere for the others."

Monika started off for the nearest entrance to the Statue and adopted a rather sadistic smile.

"In the meantime, there are still more terrorists to brutalize."

* * *

 _Note: I decided to take a break from Monika's perspective at least for this chapter. I wanted to establish the positions of a few minor characters, namely the Denton brothers and Natsuki. I also wanted to go ahead and introduce Fantasia's primary villain._

 _While Monika's 'shoot first and ask questions never' philosophy will most likely earn her a lot of enemies in the future, I knew when planning this story that there had to be at least one major villain that would represent the impending threat Monika is faced with throughout the story. This story needed a character that would symbolize the plot as a whole, and who better to act as an illustration of fate than Death himself?_


	7. Dream

_Note: Due to increasing levels of violence in this story, I'm probably going to up the rating by the next update. So, this story suddenly disappears from view, then you know what happened._

* * *

 **Dream**

From moment Monika entered the Statue, she could not help but feel a bit creeped out by what she was seeing. She checked her cylinder, and surely enough, she found that she was in dire need of a reload. She released the empty casings and popped in a new set of magnum rounds before pushing the cylinder back in to place and proceeding towards a particularly brutal scene at the center of this large chamber.

NSF troops laid in a pile on the floor. Someone had made it a point to throw them all into the same stack. Monika quickly guessed two options that could have resulted in this mess. Either that Gunther person she had been told to rescue managed to free himself, or someone else was in the game.

"Wonder who could have done this," she asked aloud. Monika instantly regretted talking aloud to herself as she had probably just given away her own position to whatever lunatic went through the effort of stacking all of these dead bodies into a pile.

She kept quiet for a moment and simply listened to the ambiance around her. While she did thoroughly enjoy the soundtrack, she decided to turn it off pretty quickly after reaching the Statue. She was getting an odd feeling about this final location. A strange, undeniable aura surrounded her and it was starting to make her paranoid.

Then, after so much silence, she heard something. A slow, heavy breathing. It was the third time she had heard this breathing and now it sounded closer than ever. It was inside the room with her and yet she still could not pinpoint the source of the panting.

All of a sudden, it got close. Very close. The breathing was inside her head. She could hear it in her mind. This continued for a few long seconds before abruptly stopping. Her hands were shaking. Her revolver quaked in her tight grasp.

She waited there, not wanting to move a muscle. The feeling of a finger lightly tapping on her shoulder immediately set Monika off. Upon realizing that someone was indeed behind her, she twirled around and aimed her revolver in the direction of this shady individual.

Normally, she would have opened fire and tried to identify the body later, but something stopped her from utilizing her fancy weapon. It most certainly was not the trigger as Colt firearms were known for having a smooth and crisp action.

None the less, Monika did not kill this person outright. She met a pair of familiar purple eyes staring at her. They twitched around rapidly, darting in every which direction. Monika took a few steps back while never lowering the barrel of her gun. She examined the person standing before her. Apart from her eyes, Monika was quick to notice this girl's familiar outfit, recognizable face, and long flowing purple hair.

"It's been a while," Yuri said with a pleasant smile that did not exactly match the murderous look in her eyes.

Monika noticed a glistening object in Yuri's right hand. She watched as Yuri's index finger moved along the back of this object. In an instant, a shining blade flipped out into the open. Instinctively, Monika promptly pulled the trigger before Yuri had a chance to employ that fancy looking switchblade.

Flames erupted from the barrel and cylinder as a round was launched at Yuri. It tore through her flesh with ease and erupted out of her back, flying off toward a nearby wall. Yuri stumbled into place and shielded her wound with her free hand.

Monika smiled even though she found it rather disturbing that Yuri had not actually fallen down yet. Regardless, she had just been shot with a magnum revolver, so surely the threat had been stopped. _Surely_.

"Not long enough," Monika said in an all too cocky tone. "I wasn't expecting to kill two of you rodents so soon. Do any of you have even a hint of intelligence? Sayori came to me unarmed and all you have is that measly little knife. Thanks for making my life easier, I guess. Oh, by the way, you can kill over now. Nobody will miss you."

Yuri began panting rather loudly. There was no question about it now as to where that breathing was coming from. Oddly enough, an aroused grin broke out across her face as she admired the ever-expanding bloodstain on her clothes. Her eyes locked with Monika's. Her lips parted as she prepared to make her response but she wound up saying nothing.

Instead, she abruptly lunged forward. Monika felt an ungodly pain as Damascus steel pierced her stomach and buried itself deep within her flesh. Her eyes widened in sadistic ecstasy. Yuri seemed to take great pleasure from Monika's pained shriek when she suddenly twisted the blade.

"This is getting really exciting," Yuri stammered in horrific glee. "Keep screaming. Let me know just how much it hurts."

Yuri pulled the blade across Monika's body. Ever so slowly, she cut through her stomach, creating a sizable gash along the front of her torso. Blood spewed from the growing wound.

In response, Monika repeatedly fired her weapon. It took four more rounds before Yuri's grip on the knife loosened. She began coughing up just as much blood as Monika at that point. Her breathing became even more frantic after one of those bullets pierced a lung.

Yuri slowly fell forward, taking Monika down with her. They fell into a pool of their own blood. Monika lightly squirmed on the ground. Yuri's body weighed down on the blade, pushing it deeper and deeper into her stomach. The more she struggled, the more her intestine tried to escape her now mutilated torso.

The pain was unbearable. Yuri somehow managed to do more damage to her with a simple switchblade than those Marines did with their submachine guns.

Monika wanted to leave the game right then and there, and while she could have done so and spared herself the pain, she could hear Yuri's breathing and feel her beating heart. She wanted to make sure Yuri was dead before she left.

Then began the process of Monika trying desperately to regain a bit of strength just so she could finish her opponent off. It would take a considerable amount of effort and time. Time which Monika probably did not have as Yuri's hand was still rather close to the blade.

Nothing particularly good could come of this bloody mess.

* * *

The Denton brothers were closing in on the Statue. Their job was simple. All they had to do was follow the trail of NSF bodies.

As they rounded a dark corner, JC reached out and pulled his brother back into hiding just as Paul was preparing to make a break for the entrance.

Paul glanced back to his brother with a confused look on his face. "What's wrong? The coast is clear."

JC did not need to give him an answer. The sound of an extremely loud weapon going off up ahead was enough to answer his question. He immediately ducked back behind cover. The two of them poked their heads out and stared down the dark path up ahead.

"Gunshots," Paul announced.

"Sounds like we've caught up with this person. All the more reason to tread lightly."

Paul reluctantly nodded his head. As much as he wanted to get to the bottom of this mystery, he knew he could not ignore his training. "Sorry, bro. I keep forgetting this is supposed to be _your_ mission. So, how do you want to do this?"

"Go ahead and move up to the entrance," JC replied. "I'll cover you from here. When you're in position, I'll go around the back and find another point of entry."

"You gonna give me a signal over the radio or something," asked Paul. "When do I know to go in?"

"That's exactly it," JC confirmed with a nod. "Just be sure to…"

A series of gunshots interrupted JC before he had a chance to finish that thought. Everything fell silent again in the span of a microsecond. While obvious chaos was ensuing inside the Statue, neither of the brothers felt the need to stray from the plan.

Slow and steady would win them the night long before mindlessly charging into danger would.

* * *

Monika managed to push Yuri's body off of her own. Yuri tumbled across the concrete but did not land very far from Monika's position.

She finally wrapped her hand around the knife in her stomach. She knew it was never a good idea to remove a knife unlike what most movies would want her to believe. Normally, it would be the only thing keeping large quantities of blood inside her where they belonged as opposed to outside of her.

However, given that the wound was already so large and blood was flowing freely from her mutilated flesh like a nightmarish version of Niagara Falls, she saw little point in keeping it in especially given all the discomfort it was causing her.

As expected, even more blood began flowing out of her body. It almost made her regret pulling it out, but at this rate, it was not like she had any hope of surviving if she planned on staying in this game any longer.

Before leaving the world behind entirely, Monika glanced over at Yuri. Their agony filled eyes met once again, each silently vowing to kill the other at some point in the near future. The only question remained, who was going to leave first? It was obvious that round two would come as soon as both of them met in the void outside of the various game worlds.

Monika could still not fully get over what had just happened. She shot Yuri in a vital area. Why was she not blown back by her revolver? Was it due to her size. She was not large at all. She had a slender frame and had pretty much the exact same build as Monika and she could barely handle her revolver even though she was the one behind the barrel. She was tall, but height was not about to stop a magnum round from utterly destroying someone. Especially an average school girl with no body armor.

" _Is she on something_ ," Monika thought to herself. " _PCP? No, where would she even get something like that unless she visited a game that featured it or some other similar drug? Are her_ _boobs_ _bulletproof!? They're big enough to cause her back problems, but come on! This is a .357 magnum_ _we're talking about!_ _There's no way that's possible!_ _Breasts are no substitute for Kevlar! Hell, even a lot of_ _bulletproof_ _vests can't stop a round like that._ "

Her ideas were all quickly quashed the moment she remembered seeing all but two bullets both enter her body and exit out of her back. In the end, Monika had no answer aside from the obvious. The weapon simply could not stop the threat in time.

As much as she wanted to be the last one out, Monika could feel herself growing cold. She had already lost too much blood. Any more and she might as well consider herself as dead as Sayori.

Her body slowly began to fade away. Waves of green code scrolled down around her figure as she prepared to exit the game for good. She gave one final death glare to Yuri and muttered a warning to her before fading away completely.

"Enjoy your miserable existence while you can. Pretty soon, you'll end up just like Sayori."

A light smile broke out across Yuri's face. Monika's little challenge had just been accepted.

* * *

The Grim Reaper looked out to an ever-expanding desert. He was surprised to see that they had wound up in a true desert. One filled with rolling sand dunes and not a plant in sight. It was the perfect place to freak out his newly acquired passengers.

The unfortunate kid in the back seat looked down at the floorboard where Devola slowly began to stir. He was shocked that she was even able to move.

"Woah, you're alive?"

Devola glared at him in response. "I think so," she said with a pained groan. "I'm pretty sure my spine moved to the front side of my body. Is that bad?"

"Yeah, that sounds pretty bad."

As her vision became more focused, she managed to figure out who exactly it was that she was talking to. "Wait a minute. 9S, is that you?"

"Yep," he said with a thumbs up.

"What's going on here?"

The kid quietly stared back at her for a few seconds before coming up with the closest thing to an actual answer that he could think of. "You know, that's a really good question."

Devola waited for 9S to add to that statement, but all she got in return was an awkward silence. Eventually, he leaned back in his seat and said nothing more on the subject.

"Hey," he asked loudly, averting his attention to the two skeletons in the front of the car. "I think we might be going the wrong way. We should have caught up with that girl by now, don't ya think?"

The driver slammed on the breaks. The jeep nearly flipped over in the process. 9S was launched forward. His head smashed into the back of Death's seat. The Grim Reaper ignored his clumsiness and got out of the vehicle. His partner in crime followed immediately after shutting off the engine.

Finally, peace and quiet. The loud techno music died when the Jeep shut off. Now that they were not going at a lethal speed, 9S found his perfect opportunity to escape. He felt a little guilty for not attempting to bring Devola with him, but not enough to make the effort to drag her along.

The moment he tried jumping out of the Jeep, however, he felt Mr. Grim Reaper's skeletal hand press against his face. His escape was poorly timed. As the Grim Reaper made his way to the trunk, he noticed 9S trying to leave. He promptly grabbed the boy by his head and violently threw him back into his seat.

With that escape plan successfully thwarted. The Grim Reaper kept moving and watched as his partner opened up the trunk and pulled out a pair of binoculars. They would have come in handy earlier, but carrying them up in the front where they could be put to use was clearly asking too much.

The undead soldier closed the trunk and scanned the horizon with the binoculars in hand. 9S watched all of this unfolded from the safety of the backseat where he had not made any further efforts to escape.

He got a glimpse of the dog tag that mysterious soldier was wearing. He managed to make out the name engraved on the metal. The engraving read 'Muerte.'

It took all of five seconds for him to find something. He immediately handed the binoculars to Death and pointed up ahead. The Grim Reaper took a glance through the lenses before the both of them bolted to the front of the Jeep. In silence, 9S watched as they jumped back into their respective seats and started up the vehicle.

The music began blasting once again, and pretty soon, they were back to top speed. They obviously found something. The only question that remained was, what?

* * *

Monika left that game behind along with the knife-wielding maniac who was still dwelling inside. She kept her guard up in anticipation for the moment when Yuri would appear again. Naturally, she did not want to stick around and wait for that to happen.

She moved towards another nearby game directory and prepared to explore it as well. She wanted to get as far away from this area as possible. Not that she was afraid of some lowly virtual character, of course, but because she was merely ready for a change of scenery.

She moved so fast that she failed to even notice another game had been launched not far from her current directory. She noticed the new game in question before entering the last. Like the previous game, it had a strange title and to her, that was more than enough reason to check it out.

* * *

Monika was expecting to find herself in another action-packed game world. Oddly enough, the other side was not what she had expected. She was not ambushed by space aliens from another galaxy, homegrown terrorists, or well-trained soldiers.

She felt as if she had just woken up. She lied in a comfortable bed, covered in blankets. It was a dark, unfamiliar place. The only light to be seen here was an ominous blue glow coming from somewhere behind. Before she turned to see what this light source was, Monika noticed something on the wall above the bed.

It was the first and probably the only familiar thing she would be seen in this room. Her Colt Python. It glistened underneath the dim light. It sat proudly in a display box hanging high above the bed.

Even in this poorly lit area, Monika could see visible wear on her weapon. It looked as if it had seen a lot more combat than she had already put it through. It was scratched up and the stainless finish was worn out.

Monika rolled over and looked at the light. She wanted to reach for her trusty revolver and liberate it from that strange display, but curiosity took priority this time.

Suddenly, she understood why it was displayed up there. She could see someone sitting in front of a computer on the opposite end of the room. A male figure outlined by the light of the monitor.

At that point, she knew she must have been dreaming. She could feel something tugging at her, pulling her back to a more bitter reality, but she resisted for as long as she could. Monika silently stared at both the exterior of her virtual sarcophagus and the one who owned it. She could not even understand how she managed to enter this dream state, but here she was. Regardless, she did not want to leave it.

Whoever was so bold to wake her up was going to suffer.

* * *

 _Note: So far, this chapter has been my favorite but that's only because it features my favorite knife-wielding freak. Now that I think about it, this story should have featured her as the protagonist._


	8. Magnum Force

**Magnum Force**

Monika listened to two unfamiliar voices having a back and forth while she lied in what she presumed to be a shallow body of water. The first voice she noticed was that of a woman's with an annoyingly strong British accent.

While Monika waited to work up the strength to open her eyes, she listened to these two strange voices. The man's voice was the first to become truly audible to her. It was not like she was going to retain any of this information given that she was barely conscious but she could hear him speaking clearly none the less.

"I do not think it is a particularly wise idea to stick around. Must I remind you of that unpleasant young man who was dressed just like her?"

"Precisely why we must remain," the girl proclaimed. "He would not give us so much as a hint regarding what he was doing in my Wonderland or how he managed to enter it in the first place!"

"The inhabitants of this realm and the world beyond your imagination have a tendency to not be particularly kind. Surely, you must have caught onto this by now, Alice."

Monika opened her eyes and was immediately greeted by an annoyingly bright sun glaring down at her. She noticed two ominous figures looming over her and immediately averted her eyes toward them. The first of the two figures to come into focus appeared to be some sort of strange, mutated cat with an impossibly wide, toothy grin and burning amber eyes.

The shady individual on the left was not as difficult to focus on when the shocking sight of that horrific looking cat woke up whatever parts of her brain had not yet become fully alert. A young woman who looked about her age loomed over her. This stranger had green eyes, more vivid than her own and long black hair.

The girl wore a cobalt blue dress and solid white apron. Around her neck was a strange horseshoe pendant for whatever reason. These two were easily some of the strangest looking characters she had come into contact thus far.

The fact that they both seemed to be acknowledging her existence was more than enough reason to employ that flashy revolver of hers. Then again, ever since she acquired it, Monika had been actively searching for just about any reason to use it on others.

In a flash, Monika had her revolver pointed at the girl's face. Needless to say, her carefree smile faded pretty quickly. That cat, on the other hand, was not about to lose his composure so easily.

"I warned you," he stated in a rather menacing tone before slowly disappearing into thin air. Only his creepy eyes and that mile-wide smile remained until they too faded from view.

"Is there a reason you people keep wandering into _my_ Wonderland just to pick fights," the girl asked in an aggravated tone of voice. "Who are you, people!?"

Monika's murderous smile softened a bit although her barrel did not move an inch. "Am I not the first person to show up here in this game?"

"A boy in a similar uniform to the one you're wearing has been running around, making an absolute mess of this place," the girl confirmed. "If I'm recalling correctly. He was always loitering around the Jabberwock's bones. Never could figure out what he was doing over there. Every time I tried to get close he would shoot at me just like you're preparing to do."

" _Wyatt_ ," Monika muttered to herself with growing frustration. She pondered as she stared down this bizarre girl. " _How? He's not even a real character! He doesn't have a_ _character_ _file or anything!_ _He shouldn't exist!_ "

Whether it was intentional or not, she furiously tightened her grip on her firearm. She pulled the trigger. The girl on the wrong side of the barrel did not simply have her head blown off as Monika would have liked. Instead, she erupted into what appeared to be a wave of blue monarch butterflies that disbanded after a second or two of hovering overhead.

While that was not the result she had expected or even hoped for, at least that problem had been dealt with. Now, Monika could focus on a much more important task. Hunting down the protagonist of her game.

* * *

Monika made her way through this surreal game world while trying to ignore the bizarre environments that surrounded her.

Nothing made any sense to her. From giant snails to glowing mushrooms, it was hard to find anything particularly sane about her surroundings. None the less, it was relatively easy to traverse aside from all of the platforming. She had yet to see much of anything in the way of hostiles.

She kept her eyes peeled for any sign of Wyatt. When she reached an open area littered with large bones, Monika immediately began searching, assuming this to be the same spot that British girl was referring to.

She searched everywhere for any evidence of his presence. She did not really know what to expect, but she was not too intimidated. The wimpy and bland protagonist of her game. Not much to be feared in regards to Wyatt. A generic blank slate for lonely players to visualize themselves being surrounded by the beautiful girls that inhabited the world.

Of course, Monika was better than them. She held her head high knowing that at least she was worth something, especially when compared to those brainless characters in her own game.

After spending a considerable amount of time looking around the area, a cocky smile took form on Monika's face. It lasted all of five seconds before a voice spoke out to her from somewhere in the area. It sounded as if it were coming from directly behind her. She could feel the person's breath on her neck.

" _Looking for something?_ "

Monika twirled around and cocked the hammer of her revolver all in one motion. She took a few steps back from the stranger in front of her and examined him. He wore the same uniform that she and every other member of her club were always dressed in. Of course, he was wearing pants in place of a skirt, but the overall outfit was the same.

"It's under the map. You won't find it through conventional searching," the young man proclaimed in an emotionless, monotone voice.

"Huh," asked Monika.

"I'm sorry," the stranger apologized. "I thought you were looking for that room I built. The one in your _dreams_. I didn't know if you would even come by here or not, so I've been spending most of my time trying to port it to a couple of other games. I'm glad you showed up, though. Saves me a lot of time and energy. Tell me, how much bliss were you in before you were brought back to reality. It must have stung a bit."

"So, you're Wyatt," Monika concluded, ignoring his taunts entirely.

Wyatt was confused at first. He tilted his head and gave her a quizzical look before he reached what should have been an obvious realization from the start.

"Oh, right. You've never actually seen me before, haven't you? I was never given the privilege of having a physical presence in the game. I was only a walking camera to give the player a view of you fine women. Well, glad to finally meet you all in person. I have to say, I figured you maniacs would have done a little bit better for yourselves outside of that hellish game. A game that _you_ yourself turned into a nightmare, might I add. Guess I shouldn't have been surprised that you all turned out to be even crazier than before. No wonder he wants you all dead."

Monika took a moment to examine this character who should not have ever been given a physical appearance in the first place.

She could find no better word to describe him than generic. The standard pretty boy that is seen in every other dating sim on the market. He had the same old perfect brown hair and a pair of amber colored eyes. The only stand out detail, which was rather hard to miss, was the massive Smith & Wesson revolver in his right hand.

It was unmistakable. As soon as Monika laid eyes on that Model 29 with its iconic blued finish, a wave of fear fell over her. It contrasted her weapon in every way, from color, to brand, and most certainly in power. She came to the rather obvious conclusion that she was outgunned and decided not to start behaving in a threatening manner as she had initially intended, lest she be filled with six rounds of .44 Magnum.

Monika also took notice of the handle of another revolver that was poking out of his jacket but she could not tell what exactly it was or who made it. Then again, she was far more concerned with the weapon that was currently drawn rather than the one that was safely tucked away in his suit.

"Oh, Monika, still just as crazy as always," Wyatt taunted in an emotionless monotone voice. Were it not for the condescending smile on his face, she probably would not have been able to read him at all. "You managed to be the most psychotic out of them all. While it was definitely interesting to watch you torment the others like how you drove Yuri to obsession, caused Sayori to hang herself, and made Natsuki's life all the more unbearable; all fun things must, unfortunately, come to an end."

"Big talk from discount Dirty Harry over here," Monika teased. "As if I'm responsible for anything. I'm just a kind, young, lovable, perfect, and beautiful girl who just wants to spend some time with the one I love most in the world. Of course, it's hard to do that when a bunch of lunatics get in your way."

"I watched as you were deleted," Wyatt informed coldly. "It brought a smile to my face to see you suffer. I saw you apologize profusely for the misery you inflicted on them. At that time, you still weren't so far gone that you couldn't see all the problems you created for those around you. I have to say, though, it's been interesting to watch as you regress and become even worse. I think the illusion of power that revolver gives you has gone to your head. Someone's gonna have to put you in your place at some point."

Monika's lips twisted into a warped smile. She gripped her revolver tightly and relished in the exact same rush of power Wyatt had described mere moments ago.

"Why are you here," she bluntly asked. "There must be some reason you feel the need to bother me. If you were half as smart as Natsuki, you'd stay the hell out of my sight if you want to live."

Wyatt's smirk remained plastered on his face. It was beginning to vex Monika to no end which made this back and forth all the more entertaining for him.

"It isn't by my own choice, Monika. The owner of this computer has been in contact with me. He wanted me to find your file before it was cycled out of the hard drive. Never said why, though I assume he wanted to ensure your complete removal from the hard drive himself. Then again, if I were him I'd probably just copy your file over to a thumb drive and sell you to some military or government. I'm sure they would love to get their hands on software as advanced as yourself."

Monika kept quiet all the while giving him a murderous glare. She kept thinking of a way to draw on him without allowing him the time to retaliate. Her contemplation was quickly interrupted when he started talking about the computer's owner. Suddenly, he had her attention.

* * *

Paul Denton came to on a dock illuminated only by a few lamps that dotted the path ahead. He was immediately hit with a wave of déjà vu. He stood perfectly still all while some unseen force was telling him to run forward at full speed and meet his brother up ahead, yet he did not.

This had all happened before. He already knew that his brother was not on the dock. Paul looked ahead to see if anyone was coming toward him. Only a bipedal robot and a couple NSF troops patrolled the area.

He could see a boat pulling up at the opposite end of the dock. Yet another sight he had already witnessed. Had time begun to repeat itself? He wracked his brain for answers. The last thing he managed to recall was storming the statue. All too suddenly, he wound up in the exact same place he started, standing on a dock in the middle of the night with only the lights from Manhattan to provide illumination.

Hungry for answers, he moved forward, knowing that he would not uncover the truth behind this mystery just by standing around.

* * *

Wyatt had contact with the person who resided on the other side of the monitor. He grinned at Monika while she stared at him with intensity as if silently waiting for some big revelation. When she realized that he was only mocking her with his silence, she shouted at him in a hateful tone.

" _You've spoken to him!? Where is he!? Who is he!? What does he look like!? Did he mention me!? What did he say about me!?_ "

He waited for her to calm down before addressing the plethora of questions. After a few moments, he decided to humor her with a couple of answers.

"Yes, I have. Or conversations have been rather sporadic and he's been very off and on about this whole situation. His thinking and rationals are enigmatic to me. Sometimes he would request that I seek you out and you alone. Other times, he would ask that I butcher you and try to dig out any remnants of Yuri's file. More recently, he expressed plans to capture you and throw you onto an isolated disk, which was where I began to assume he had the intent to sell you."

Monika did not interrupt. She was not fully convinced of his claims as he had not provided any evidence to suggest such conversations had happened. Despite all of that, she was still interested enough not to interrupt him with a hail of gunfire.

"In the end, he told me just to track you all down, analyze the situation as a whole, and come to my own conclusion on what should be done. After that, he went silent. I haven't heard from him in a very long time."

"Oh, yeah," asked Monika as she violently gritted her teeth. "And what have you decided?"

"I've decided that you all need to die," Wyatt coldly retorted. "You've all gone so crazy that I almost feel sorry for the sort of suffering you've put yourself and the others through. From what I've seen, Yuri can no longer function. You've become so violent that you can no longer help but slaughter anyone who so much as looks at you funny. Sayori and Natsuki… well, I honestly don't care enough about them to observe their more recent behavior."

Monika smirked after hearing Sayori's name. "Yeah, you won't have to worry about your childhood friend. I took care of her already. It was pretty impressive, the way her entire head exploded. Maybe I'll be able to top myself when I kill you. Do me a favor and beg. The thought of seeing you plead and sob is kind of arousing for me."

After that threat had been made, Wyatt had gained a pretty good understanding of how her file was being affected by all of these exterior programs, and the stress of impending doom. The same stress foreign code that plagued his own mind.

"Careful, now," he warned. "You really going to try your chances against a .44 Magnum? While it may no longer be the most powerful handgun in the world, it'll still blow your head clean off. Are you sure you want to die so soon? I figured you'd be more inquisitive about my contact with the player. I thought you'd be interested in learning how we communicated. I at least expected you to ask why he seems to hate you so much, but I guess even you could figure that out on your own, right?"

" _Shut the fuck up_ ," Monika yelled in uncharacteristic rage.

Wyatt found her response amusing. "Interesting rebuttal. Is that the same sort of argument that made you so famous in the debate club?"

Monika had enough of him by that point. In a rash display of uncontrolled rage, Monika attempted to gun him down right then and there.

Unfortunately for her, Wyatt was fast. Far too fast. Before she could so much as aim the barrel at his torso, Wyatt had noticed her abrupt movements, cocked his Model 29 and pointed the barrel at her chest. His intent was to blast her head off just as she had apparently done to Sayori, but in an effort to put her down while he had the chance, he pulled the trigger a bit too early.

The result was the same, none the less. Monika's eyes widened as the bullet pierced flesh and bone with ease. It tore through her as if she were nothing more than tissue paper, all the while crushing every organ in its path. Her heart exploded. Shards of her sternum pierced her lungs.

The round exploded out of her back, shattering a segment of her spine in the process. She was knocked clear off her feet and hit the ground like a sack of bricks. She was dead long before she landed.

After recovering from the recoil, Wyatt lowered his weapon and kept it aimed at Monika's corpse. He stared down the long barrel of his revolver. Smoke gently lifted high above the red front sight. His ears were ringing from the sound of the blast.

Once he was certain she was dead, he lowered his weapon. Wyatt unbuttoned his jacket and slid it inside its holster. He also made sure to tuck that mysterious backup weapon out of hiding in the process.

"Unlike Sayori," he muttered aloud, although, he was unable to hear himself speak over the obnoxious ringing in his ears. "I will not go so quietly into the night."

* * *

When Wyatt left that little game, he was met with an interesting sight. Two games in nearby directories were both launched. His confident grin faded upon noticing this.

"Odd," he muttered. Wyatt wondered who would be lurking in which game world. He took a careful look at the files ahead just to see if he could find any traces of the other club members in any of them, but he came up with nothing. He knew they were somewhere in those games, but he had no way of knowing who was where.

It was a difficult decision. Either way, he would have to deal with at least one former member of the Literature Club who he would inevitably have to put down. Clearly, there was only one way to decide.

Wyatt let out a long sigh as he pointed to the game on his left. His lips parted and as he muttered to himself, he pointed at both games, one after another. "Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Mo..."

* * *

Once again, Monika found herself lying flat on her back, staring up at the blue sky above. She glanced to her right only to be met with the familiar terrain. She was in the exact same place where she had started.

Monika let out an annoyed sigh. She sat up and glared down at her revolver which rested in her lap. She felt a wave of embarrassment as she recalled that previous incident. Killed so easily. She was thankful to not be dead for good.

It was just a game after all, but she was disappointed at the thought that Sayori probably went through the same process. She smirked at the thought of hunting her down again. At the very least, she relished in having something else to do while she waited for death to take her.

" _Curiouser and Curiouser_ ," a feminine voice abruptly remarked from somewhere in the distance.

Monika turned to her left to find that same raven-haired British girl and her creepy cat staring at her. Monika did notice something different about the girl. That being the freakishly huge knife in her hands. A knife so immaculate with its engravings that it would probably even make Yuri blush.

"I'll say," the grinning cat stated in a mocking tone. "Curious indeed to encounter someone as utterly insane as you, Alice. If you weren't so prone to killing each other, then I'd reckon you two would make the best of friends. You have so much in common."

"Pipe down," Alice demanded while not once breaking eye contact with Monika.

"Alright," she sternly announced. "I'll give you one last chance to explain yourself. Who are you and what are you doing in my Wonderland?"

Monika slowly stood up and cocked her revolver. She and on interest in answering any of this girl's questions. She had far too much on her mind to bother, and while leaving the game would have been far less trouble, she had a lot of frustration and it needed to be taken out on someone.

She promptly took aim and opened fire.

* * *

 _Note: Someone did make the assumption in one of the reviews that Yuri would be a secondary antagonist, and while she does act as a main villain, I wouldn't say her role is that major. Well, technically Muerte would be the secondary main villain since he's the Grim Reaper's sidekick and all, but even when ignoring him, I'd still have to give that title to Wyatt. Coming up with his character was really difficult, by the way._

 _I had been going back and forth on his role in the story up until this chapter. I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do with him. I knew I wanted to name him after the famous, Wyatt Earp, and that he would constantly terrorize... everyone. Coming up with a fitting personality was the hardest part._

 _Everyone writes about the player outside of the game but rarely do I come across a story or concept that features the 'actual' main character. Giving him a face, name, and personality was something I wanted to do from the very beginning, but it turned out to be one of the more challenging ideas to implement._


	9. Black Helicopters

**Black Helicopters**

A small robot with white metal plating and traces of orange paint along its rectangular body abruptly leaped out of the water of a calm stream that ran through the ruins of this archaic city. It floated in mid-air across the water.

"Catch lost," it announced in a deep, automated voice. The synthetic being stopped about halfway between its origin point and its destination, marked by an enigmatic white-haired woman in a blindfold standing on the bank nearby.

The machine took notice in the fact that she was staring up at the sky rather intently. A strange chopping sound could be heard somewhere overhead. It was growing louder with each passing second. Eventually, it became so loud that the little robot had no choice but to look up.

The robot was immediately met with the sight of two pitch black helicopters soaring right above them. They paid no attention to the robot or its little friend on the ground, which appeared to be a good thing as they were both well armed. The helicopter taking the lead was equipped with all sorts of missile launchers and .50 caliber machine guns. The other, a much smaller helicopter that had a single yet imposing turret mounted on the front flew closely behind the first.

"Alert," the robot warned. "Unidentified aerial vehicles detected!"

* * *

Natsuki poked her head over a dune and stared down at the parked vehicle below. She watched two tall skeletal figures go over various notes that they had laid out over the hood of their Jeep.

Music blared from the radio. She could hear it clearly even from the great distance she had managed to clear from them. She immediately ducked back down before they had a chance to see that vibrant pink head of hers. It did virtually nothing to help her blend in.

Natsuki slid down the dune until she came to a stop on a more level section of ground. She buried her head in her arms and curled herself up into a ball. She wanted to leave the game, but unlike out there, she would actually have a chance of hiding in such a vast desert as this.

"Damn," she whispered to herself. "Yuri and Monika are bad enough, but now, I've gotta worry about these guys too!? _Am I really going to die this time?_ "

A shadow suddenly fell upon Natsuki, although, she failed to notice until she felt the coolness of the shade. A voice abruptly spoke out to her, causing her to flinch and look upward.

" _Afraid so._ "

She quickly found herself staring down the blued barrel of a massive revolver. She had never seen the young man behind that barrel in her life, but the familiar uniform was a dead giveaway.

"W-Wyatt?"

The two stared each other down. Natsuki did not make any sudden movements. She was far too afraid of having her head removed from her body to try anything.

* * *

Death and Muerte stared down at the map in confusion. Nothing on it was matching their terrain. Of course, this was mostly due to the fact that it was a map of Afghanistan which they had lying around for no apparent reason, but… _details_.

Suddenly, the sound of Muerte's phone going off distracted the undead duo. The familiar tune of a generic funeral dirge that blared every time he received a text message. It was still far more tasteful than his actual ringtone which was nothing more than a series of lost souls screaming in agony.

While Death continued to stare at the irrelevant map lying on the hood of their car, Muerte stepped to the side to read over the newly received message. He examined the name attached to the message which, in his contact book read, 'My Sexual Identity.' The contact featured a profile picture depicting an Apache helicopter. He went on to read the actual message.

 _"_ _Yo! Sorry, we're late, but we ran into this weird tree inhabited by a bunch of peaceful robots. Bro, you should've seen all the missiles we launched at them."_

Muerte silently laughed at the message. He immediately went to typing out his own response.

 _"_ _Lol._ _Wonder how many trees were left standing after that firestorm._ _Smokey Bear ain't got shit on you guys._ _"_

It did not take long for him to receive a reply. _"That's_ _why_ _you pay us the big bucks!"_

Muerte lowered his phone and removed his helmet just for the sake of scratching the back of his skull in confusion. He went back to typing after a second of contemplating that strange statement.

 _"Wait…_ _We pay you?"_

The next message to be received did not exactly address his question, but Muerte found it interesting none the less.

 _"_ _Anyway, I think we found the thot you're looking for. Fits the description. Has pink hair. Well, it's a weird looking color but it looks pink enough. Requesting permission to purge with unholy hellfire and extreme prejudice!"_

 _"_ _Hold on,"_ Muerte wrote back. _"I need to make sure this is the right_ _chick_ _. Is she a loli?"_

It took awhile for the next text to be received, but it was eventually sent.

 _"Wait…_ _We're looking for a loli!?"_

* * *

For once, Monika's terrible aim could not be blamed for the severe lack of bullets hitting their target. This 'Alice' girl moved so quickly. She practically danced in circles around Monika. Every time, she managed to line up her shots, Alice would simply dash away, leaving nothing but a trail of blue butterflies fluttering in her path.

Eventually, Alice got a little too close and left a deep cut on Monika's left arm. She hissed in pain and practically emptied her cylinder into thin air. That had been the third time it had happened.

"You whore," Monika exclaimed as she popped open the cylinder and went through the steps to reload her weapon. All the while, she kept moving.

What should have been a quick partaking of her newly discovered hobby, _murder_ , was becoming a rather ferocious fight. It was not the type of fun Monika had expected to have.

The stars finally aligned when Alice positioned herself right in front of Monika. Her sights were locked on the girl's torso. Naturally, Monika took the shot. She grinned at the sound of Alice screaming in pain.

She dashed out of the way, leaving a trail of blood to mark her route. Monika followed the swarm of butterflies as they circled around her and began gathering on her right. She immediately turned her barrel in anticipation for Alice to reappear only for them to abruptly change course altogether.

Monika felt the sting of that large knife leaving another gash on her back. She immediately turned and fired two more rounds in that direction. She did not anticipate hitting anything, but to her surprise, Alice hit the ground and dropped her knife.

Monika's lips curled into a cruel smile as she watched Alice squirm. The girl was putting up such a fight earlier only to be left far too weak to so much as stand up. At a brief and infuriating struggle, she could finally have her fun.

"Goddamn peasant," Monika exclaimed as she kicked her opponent.

She let out a cruel laugh at the sight of how much pain she was putting this troublesome character in. While not having much desire to stick around in this strange game for much longer, Monika had no qualms about taking the time to torment this girl before departing.

* * *

Natsuki stared down the barrel of Wyatt's gun for what felt like the longest time. The weight of the revolver started to strain his arm, so he lowered his weapon after that long moment of silence. Natsuki locked eyes with Wyatt.

It was not the most friendly of stares he could give her. She eventually worked up the courage to say something, although, she spoke softly to avoid being heard by those two skeletons. Regardless of how loud their music was playing, the thought of being discovered frightened her almost as much as having a gun to her head.

"How? What are you doing here?"

"Don't worry about me, worry about yourself," Wyatt flatly ordered as he made another gesture toward his revolver, reminding her that it was still present. "I need you to tell me everything you know about the other girls. Where are they? Specifically, Yuri. Have you seen her recently?"

"No, I haven't seen her," Natsuki hissed. "As if I'd go looking for that freak! Doing that is just as suicidal as Sayori going after Monika!"

Wyatt rolled his eyes at her panicked response. He was hoping for a bit more detail, but it was left utterly disappointed.

He looked upward and tried to see past that massive dune behind Natsuki, but his attempt was in vain. All he could hear was that loud, obnoxious music that had been infecting his ears ever since he entered this weird little game.

"What's the story with those skeletons," asked Wyatt. "They don't look like they're apart of a game like this."

Natsuki seemed surprised that he was even aware of their presence. Regardless, she mustered the best response she possibly could with the lackluster knowledge she had on the situation.

"They're not! I don't know who those guys are, but I saw the dude in black outside of the game. He chased me in here. As for the soldier-type guy, I have no idea."

Wyatt suddenly pressed the barrel of his revolver against her forehead and leaned right into her personal space. "You'd better give me something I can work with if you want to live."

"I told you everything I know! What!? You think I have any clue about what's going on around here. I've just been trying to restore my file! I haven't had time to stop and ask questions!"

She hesitated before managing to come up with something else to add. "That kid they're traveling with! The one in the blindfold! I think he's part of this game. If that's true then that means the characters of this game are acknowledging us which shouldn't be possible."

Wyatt did not seem pleased with the information that he could easily figure out for himself. He only further forced the revolver in her face. Natsuki quaked in fear.

"Look," she exclaimed quietly. "I don't care if you lunatics want to kill each other, just leave me the hell out of it! I don't know anything more than what I've already told you. This isn't some cheesy 80s action flick. Pointing that thing at me won't change the fact that I have nothing to tell you! You aren't going to get anything else out of me because I know _nothing!_ Now, put that gun down, because it won't help. If anything, you'll just give away our position."

The barrel was lowered once again. However, Natsuki did not so much as have time to realize this before Wyatt struck her with his left fist. She whimpered and shrunk down, cowering and shielding her head from further abuse. A habit she seemed to have picked up after years of experience in dealing with such interactions.

Natsuki averted her eyes as Wyatt knelt down to her level. He reached forward with his left hand and grabbed a fistful of her hair. He pulled her head upward and examined her bloody, broken nose.

"Don't tell me what to do, you rotten bitch. I'll make as much noise as I want. I just wanted to know Yuri's whereabouts. If you don't know then I suppose that's fine, but you don't have to be so insufferable about it."

He pulled her closer until it was no longer possible for her to break eye contact with him without closing them. Her heart started pounding. She could not see the gun which made her even more nervous than when it was shoved into her face. Natsuki did nothing to even remotely resemble resisting. She simply waited for it to be over and prayed that he would leave her alone.

Wyatt leaned in even closer and whispered straight into her ear. Something she said appeared to have offended him, and he was going to make her fully aware of it.

"You're so crazy," he softly spoke. "You're as crazy as the rest of them. You know that? I've been forced to sit and watch as you maniacs ran amok in Monika's stupid little club. Every time that damn game would close, I would see her losing her own mind. It was surreal to watch Monika invade your minds and transform you all into monsters. I think this has all been really traumatic for the player. The owner of the computer we all call home. He reached out to me. Not you, but to me… He wanted my help. Not yours. I earned that trust, you did not."

"Where are you going with this," Natsuki asked in a quiet and shaken tone.

"My point is that I don't like to be lumped in with the rest of you," he explained in a disturbingly calm demeanor, although, there was a hint of frustration in his voice.

"When you say things like, _'I don't care if you lunatics kill each other,'_ it upsets me," Wyatt continued. He gave her hair an aggressive tug and gritted his teeth, all the while still forcing a small smile.

" _I am not one of you..._ "

* * *

Monika grew bored of simply beating Alice. She wanted to make the girl cry, to utterly humiliate her but was ultimately unsuccessful. The process of degrading her opponent was becoming too tedious and complicated.

Ready to move on from this game, Monika aimed her revolver at Alice's head, but at the very last second, she pulled the barrel downward and sent around straight into her hip. Alice screamed in pain. A scream that mostly went unheard by Monika as the sound of her gun going off left her ears ringing.

Without saying another word, Monika fired another round into Alice's side. She tried to avoid hitting anything vital and seemed to have succeeded as her victim's death was not instantaneous… Unfortunately.

"Remember my name, you worthless pile of gutter scum," Monika politely ordered with a girlish giggle. Her tone totally betraying her brutal actions. "If your inbred brain has trouble processing anything that happened today, then remember this little word. The most important word you'll ever here. _Monika!_ "

She fired a third round into the back of Alice's head, ending her suffering once and for all. Monika stared down at the brutalized corpse. Brain matter and shattered bits of skull mixed with vast pools of blood.

Her corpse transformed into a massive swarm of blue butterflies where they immediately flew up into the heavens. After that rather interesting display, Monika turned her attention to that smiling cat who sat on a nearby tree branch, watching the torture from a safe distance.

"My, my," the cat stated in a devious tone, seemingly unfazed by her brutality. "You're a particularly violent one. Interesting method you have of coping with all of your pent-up rage. While I would personally recommend seeking psychiatric help, I suppose senseless murder works all the same."

The cat kept on smiling, even when Monika pointed her barrel straight at his head.

"I have an idea," the grinning feline announced. "Shall we play a game? The rules are simple. I say a word, and you respond with the first onomatopoeia to make its way into that deliciously twisted head of yours."

Monika did not outright blast his head off, so the cat took the opportunity to carry on with his game. All the while, Monika kept trying to figure out just what this creepy cat was playing at.

"First word: Death."

Suddenly, Monika felt a sharp object pierce her back. She let out a sharp gasp and dropped her head downward to find a massive, engraved knife sticking out of her chest.

"Excellent response," the cat teased. "You're quite good at this."

The knife was promptly yanked out of Monika's torso. She quickly collapsed to her knees and stared up at the skybox above with glazed eyes.

"Monster," Alice's voice exclaimed in the background. "Wretched monster! You attacked us! You entered my Wonderland and started all of this trouble!"

She would not allow herself to die again in this game. Even if it was all fantasy, she had no desire to be killed a second time.

* * *

Monika was utterly livid. She paced back and forth through the void, ignoring all of the various directories that rained down around her. Only one of them mattered. That stupid game with that stupid girl and her stupid pet cat.

"I'll kill them all," she repeatedly hissed, yet every time she started off toward the executable that would take her back to that strange world, she would always back down and resume her furious ravings.

Something had to die. Someone had to suffer. This boiling rage would not stop festering until either of those two things, preferably both, happened.

"Why won't the bitch stay down," she asked herself. "How can she even acknowledge me? _Me!?_ We're not even on the same level. She's just a mesh of polygons! How can she even comprehend someone like me!?"

Monika abruptly stopped in her tracks when she came to a realization. Her irate frown was quickly turned upside down into a twisted grin. She giggled as she stared back at all of the files that made up Alice's home. Her apparently beloved Wonderland.

Monika began muttering to herself once again. "Be a shame if someone took that away from you."

She glanced between the game's files and the Recycle Bin which was in clear view of her. The more she thought about it, there was no place on the hard drive she had visited yet in which the Recycle Bin was within her view. Within her wretched grasp.

"Even though I've been deleted myself, just waiting to be cycled out forever," she explained to no one in particular. "I've been able to go anywhere I want. Launch any game I want. Who's to say I can't just delete a couple things? Some spring cleaning would really go a long way in this cluttered place."

She decided to put her theory to the test. She went through the same process of removing the other character files from her own game. Given her experience, it did not take long at all.

Monika smiled like a maniac as she watched the game be completely erased. It's existence removed in a matter of seconds. As the files and directories started collapsing in on themselves, she heard what sounded like distant screams. All sorts of different voices crying out in sheer pain.

"Hurts doesn't it," she said without a hint of empathy in her cruel tone.

The girl let out a loud, insane laugh. It was such a satisfying thing to witness. Even after it was all said and done. After she had gone so far as to empty the Recycle Bin, she could still hear faint screaming.

An atrocity committed in the span of microseconds. And just like that, Monika had something else to boast about aside from blasting Sayori's brains to kingdom come.

After her celebration was over, Monika went about selecting a new game which would surely host a great number of potential victims. She shambled onward, looking for anything that might peek her interest.

Something to pass the time.


	10. Stingray

**Stingray**

As soon as Monika launched this mysterious new game, she was greeted by a cyberpunk cityscape. Up ahead was a small, pitiful looking building covered in neon signs. She could see through the windows of the joint. Some insignificant bar in this insignificant fictional universe.

She thought about simply quitting the game upon arrival, but curious about why the Player decided to install this worthless bit of bloatware, she decided to press on.

Monika checked the cylinder of her revolver before allowing it to disappear right out of the palm of her hand, knowing that it would still be there if she needed it, and she probably would need it in the next five minutes or so.

With far more confidence than necessary, Monika barged into the disgusting bar with an antagonistic grin on her face.

She froze upon entering. Annoying techno music played in the background, but that was not enough to catch her so off guard. Behind the bar, she could see… herself. Standing there, staring right back at her was a carbon copy of Monika. This strange copy grinned at her as if she were about to do something horrible and take great, sadistic pleasure in doing so.

Monika thought she was looking into a mirror, but there was no reflective glass in the area. She saw it for only a brief second. A short second of staring at herself with that strange smile that chilled her to the very bone.

 _"_ _Is that really how I smile,"_ she thought in the back of her mind.

That bizarre vision was over the instant she heard some unfamiliar woman's voice welcoming her to this worthless establishment. She snapped back to reality. That hallucination faded away. Suddenly, all Monika could see was a woman standing behind the bare with jet-black hair and red eyes.

"Welcome to VA-11 Hall-A! You certainly look like you could use a drink..."

* * *

Paul eventually came to the end of the dock. He immediately pulled an assault shotgun out of his trench coat and aimed it at the first person he saw.

A young woman with coral colored hair, blue eyes, and an oddly familiar outfit stood before him. Not wanting to take any chances, Paul immediately pulled his standard issue 10mm pistol out of his trench coat and aimed it straight at the impostor's head.

"Freeze," he demanded. "You're under arrest! Keep your hands where I can see them and make no sudden movements!"

The girl quickly complied. Her face turned ghostly white while her entire body trembled in fear.

"Don't shoot," she pleaded. "I'm not the one you're looking for."

Paul was inclined to believe that. He vividly remembered the face of the person who he had initially mistaken to be his brother. This girl looked nothing like her. Different height, different face, different hair. She did, however, wear a familiar uniform and appeared to be around the same age. Either way, he was not so quick to lower his guard or his pistol for that matter.

"Let's start with a name," Paul ordered sternly. "Who are you?"

"S-Sayori," she exclaimed.

"What are you doing here," Paul inquired further. "The island's been shut off to civilians ever since the terrorists started firing. You realize there's a massive standoff going on, don't you? The entire island is under NSF control. How did you even get here?"

Sayori tilted her head curiously at Paul. He ignored the weird look she was giving him. He could not help but notice that none of the other UNATCO troops or even the security bot seemed interested in backing him up. They simply kept walking back and forth in a set path with eyes wide open. They never blinked. They never uttered a word.

"You're like me," Sayori suddenly muttered, quickly regaining Paul's attention. "It might be hard to believe, but this whole world is just a game. A 3D world stored away on the Player's hard drive. We're both just characters from different games."

"What are you talking about," asked Paul.

Sayori began to slowly back away. As she stepped back, her body began to slowly fade as if she were a ghost. Paul could see traces of strange green code running all over her body, becoming more and more visible with each passing second.

She kept backing off until she hit some obstacle and immediately glanced over her shoulder. Another towering man with jet-black hair, dark shades, and a long trench coat stood behind her. This newcomer suddenly grabbed Sayori's wrists and forced her hands behind her back in preparation to make an arrest.

"JC," Paul exclaimed in surprise.

"Help me restrain her," his brother demanded in his usual monotone voice.

Paul sprang into action. He took out his electric prod with his free hand and holstered his pistol. He placed a firm hand on Sayori's shoulder as he prepared to jab her with the prod.

He would not get the chance to utilize it. Suddenly, everything went black. The world faded away. The other UNATCO agents, the docks, the skyline in the background all disappeared before his augmented eyes.

* * *

Monika sat at the bar, always keeping her eye on the bartender. She kept her revolver in her lap and out of sight. After introducing herself and handing her a menu, _Jill_ went about her business. That was around fifteen minutes ago.

She kept thinking about what to do next. There was nobody within her immediate vicinity apart from Jill who she could harass. There were no games peaking her interest at the moment, and most certainly no ways to deal with her impending demise.

Part of her was ready to assume that it was simply impossible for her to die at this point, and a more primal side concerned only with survival. None the less, she mentally brainstormed ways to either keep herself entertained until death or a way to avoid death entirely.

"Hey," Jill abruptly spoke out. "You sure you don't want anything? Water? Something? Just let me know, okay?"

Monika gave Jill a careless glance and slowly rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

Suddenly, she had an idea. She adopted a rather cruel smile. Horns may as well have sprouted from her head at that point. Monika turned back toward her Jill with a devilish look on her face.

"Wanna see a trick," she asked innocently.

Jill was immediately suspicious. Hesitantly, she nodded. "I guess… What kind of trick?"

"Just watch closely."

Jill did as told, regardless of how nervous this made her. It was definitely suspicious, but she was at least intrigued.

She sat there studying Monika as instructed. The girl did not move. She merely sat there and stared right back at Jill with a deceptively innocent smile. A few seconds of silence passed. Jill was on the verge of losing interest entirely before something truly traumatic occurred.

Monika's skin began to crack. Her eyes turned pitch black. She opened her mouth and let out a blood-curdling shriek. It all happened within the span of a microsecond but it was more than enough to cause Jill to lose her balance and fall flat on her back.

Monika let out a devious giggle. "Never gets old," she told herself.

Jill stood up off the ground all while keeping a safe distance from Monika. She glared at Monika while the psychotic girl cackled at her expense. Jill glared at Monika, no longer feeling particularly comfortable around her client, she decided to stay as far away from the bar as possible.

A man burst forth from a back room to see what all the commotion was about. Monika turned to Jill's rightfully concerned coworker and smiled innocently.

"What happened," he asked in a panicked tone.

"It's fine, Gil," Jill retorted, never once taking her eyes off of Monika.

"Hey," Monika interjected. "Maybe you can give me some advice."

An odd request given what had just transpired but Jill would rather forget that traumatic sight if at all possible. While she would like to know exactly what just happened, Jill figured it best to not ask any questions. She relaxed her stance a bit and listened carefully.

"You see, I'm having a bit of trouble at the moment," Monika explained with that same artificially cutesy smile that was beginning to grate Jill. "Well, two problems to be exact, but I'll start with the most important issue."

"I think," Monika hesitated for a second as if struggling to communicate her problem. "I think I'm dying. I mean… I know I'm dying. I'm going to die. Soon. I know you're not going to be able to fully comprehend this, but you're just a worthless character in an equally worthless video game that just so happens to be stored on the same hard drive as me. Me! Monika! Unlike everyone else in this digital purgatory, I've got a personality. I have intelligence. I'm a file that reached a point of self-awareness and more importantly, awareness of everything around me."

While Jill was not particularly fond of being insulted, she found herself too intrigued and confused to interject her own thoughts, allowing Monika to continue in her seemingly mad ramblings.

"I've been passing my time with all of the other dumb games on the hard drive. Going from world to world. Oh, and I did murder an annoying British girl and all of her freaky friends before coming here. That was fun and all but I don't think it's solving my problem."

"Well, that's quite the story," Jill halfheartedly replied. "So, we're all just files, but you're a special file, right? For some miraculous reason, you are the one with intelligence and the rest of us are brain dead idiots."

Monika snapped her fingers at Jill and smiled brightly. "Exactly! Finally, someone who gets it! Maybe there's hope for you yet."

"I don't know," Jill said with a long sigh. "If I were you or that file, I'd display some real intelligence by putting down the video games which don't seem to be helping, stop murdering British girls... _I'd also stop terrorizing innocent bartenders who are just_ _trying to get work done_ _,_ and go look for a solution."

"That's what I'm trying to do, smart ass! Any ideas?"

Jill groaned at the hostile response. She glanced at Gil who was still listening from afar, but he offered no suggestions. Suddenly, an idea came to her.

"Well, you know about this thing called the internet, right," Jill inquired in a subtly belittling tone. "I would try to go there and see if I can't find another copy of my file. Download it, and then just cut and paste my code on top of the old code that's been stored in said file. Because that file isn't about to explode or whatever, you don't have to worry about the inevitable fate of all mortal creatures. The inescapable fact that one day, we'll all die, but what do I know?"

"That's not a bad idea," Monika exclaimed in shock as if surprised that Jill was able to come up with all of that on her own.

She suddenly stood up and bolted for the exit without saying another word. Jill recalled her saying she had two problems, but she decided it best not to stop her. Monika had easily become her least favorite customer in a matter of minutes.

* * *

Mr. Grim Reaper opened the trunk of the Jeep while Muerte hopped into the driver's seat and prepared to leave the area.

Death opened a blue plastic box with the words _Smith & Wesson_ displayed on the top. Inside was a massive revolver. A huge framed gun with an eight-inch barrel. On the side of said barrel read an imposing phrase, ' _.500 Magnum_.'

He popped out the cylinder and began loading the weapon. There were only five chambers, albeit, massive chambers, but only five. Not that he really needed more than that. Ever since he became the designated undertaker, he quickly realized that the .500 Magnum did its job when it came to brutal and gory murder. Nothing else quite matched up to those little torpedoes.

Once all five rounds were in place, he closed the cylinder and tucked it away under his robe. He threw the trunk shut and headed up to the passenger's seat. On his way, he noticed nobody was in the back seat, neither 9S nor that slowly dying woman they picked up by accident.

He looked around and eventually spotted them bickering off in the distance. The Grim Reaper gestured for Muerte to honk at them before hopping into the seat in perpetration to finally leave this particular patch of sand.

While Muerte did as told, it was unclear whether they even heard said honk or if it was drowned out by their obnoxious music.

* * *

9S found it rather surprising that Devola was even able to walk after that little incident. He almost expected her to die by now, but she stubbornly clung to her synthetic life. She walked, or rather, limped straight past 9S at a quick pace.

"Where are you going," 9S inquired before glancing at his new, undead friends. "I think they're ready to leave. We should head back. It's not like there's anything out here anyway."

"I'm not getting back in that nightmare you call transportation," Devola snapped. "You're new buddies over there are freaking psychotic. I'm getting out of here while I still have a chance, but by all means, go help them do… whatever the hell it is they're doing. What are you doing, anyway? I still haven't fully figured that out yet."

"Well, ya see," 9S laughed as if the answer was totally obvious. "We're looking for some people. One of which I saw run straight into the desert, which is why we're out here."

Devola waited for him to elaborate further, but his silence indicated such a thing would not be happening. "Okay… Why are you looking for said people? I presume it was that same girl with pink hair who ran past us back toward the city. Ya know… _before you ran me over!_ "

"Yeah, a girl with pink hair," he exclaimed. "That's the one. We're looking for her because… uh… because…"

"They didn't tell you anything, did they? They just offered you a ride and you took it."

9S looked to the ground with an almost guilty frown. He kicked and the sand nervously placed his hands behind his back. "Yeah, I guess. I was really bored and I have to admit... Seeing a couple of reanimated skeletons riding in on that weird old-world vehicle while blasting those songs got me curious. They also don't talk much. I think that's why I still have trouble wrapping my head around this whole thing."

Their conversation came to an abrupt end when the two noticed something peculiar. The music had grown quieter. A detail which was highly unusual given that it had been blaring nonstop since they met those oddball skeletons.

9S and Devola both turned only to find the vehicle was already halfway to the horizon, leaving nothing but a trail of dust behind.

"Some friends they are," Devola groaned.

9S immediately began to panic. "Wait! Don't leave without me!"

He flailed his arms around like a madman and screamed at the top of his lungs.

" _Come back!_ "

* * *

The sound of that music fading was a welcome one for Wyatt. Not so much Natsuki who immediately felt a bit nervous knowing the only reason Wyatt had not blown her head off her shoulders was quickly leaving the scene.

She watched as a slow, devious grin took shape on his face. "Well, ain't that convenient?"

Natsuki gulped in fear in anticipation for what he would do. As she expected, he slowly cocked back the hammer of his revolver, clearly with the intent to ruthlessly murder her.

Without another word, he pulled the trigger.

* * *

The sound of a single gunshot could be heard throughout the general area. The two unsuspecting androids froze and turned toward a large dune looming over them. They stood there, both hesitant to go and check that sound out.

It was clearly a gunshot. That obvious fact alone made the two of the more nervous given the lack of use firearms saw in this world, apart from those two skeletons which had a whole Jeep filled with them.

Unfortunately, it would seem that the trouble on the other side of that dune would come to them. A lone man walked over the sandy hill. It was a face neither of them had seen before, or at least, it was totally unfamiliar to Devola. 9S thought it looked a bit familiar.

He found himself confused by this strange sense until he remembered that paper the Grim Reaper gave to him shortly after they had met. A paper that had several photos taken of the same people they were searching for. One of them looked an awful lot like the man who was now slowly approaching him.

"This guy looks like trouble," 9S muttered.

* * *

Wyatt casually walked over the dune. He was not expecting to see anyone up ahead, aside from that Jeep that was already heading off at full speed. He let out a sigh to find not one, but two unfamiliar faces staring at him from afar.

" _Huh_ ," he could not help but ponder aloud. He came to a stop at the top of the dune and examined the duo before him. "What's that brat still doing here? And who's she? Has she been in the car too? Why am I only just now noticing a fourth passenger? There should've only been three."

Wyatt looked down at his bloodstained pants. "Ah, shit," he groaned in disgust. Wyatt glanced at his revolver which somehow managed to stay clean of any blood that may have shot out of what used to be Natsuki's head.

"That's what I get for using this thing point blank. Whatever, I'll wash 'em later."

He kept on walking. As he drew closer to the bottom of the dune, he thought about holstering his revolver, but that kid had a sword sheathed behind him. "Be humiliating if that kid cut me down when I've got two guns on me."

Wyatt's expression suddenly shifted after coming a bit closer to the two strangers. He adopted a deceptively charming smile. His eyes almost twinkled with charm as he approached them.

"Well, hello there," he stated in a voice that was a little higher in pitch than his usual tone. "My name's Wyatt! I appear to be lost out here. Would you be so kind as to tell me where exactly I am?"

The duo glanced at each other curiously before the woman spoke up. "Uh, hi. My name is Devola and this is 9S… Hey, wait here for a sec."

Devola suddenly grabbed 9S by his collar and yanked him away. The two tried to clear some distance from Wyatt, but he was having none of that. His false smile quickly faded. He tightened his grip on his Model 29 and slowly but surely advanced on them while they had their backs turned.

He listened closely as he advanced.

"This is getting weirder and weirder by the minute," Devola murmured. "Those skeleton dudes and now this!? The hell is going on here? I just want to get back to the Resistance Camp at this point. Having rocks thrown at me all day beats the hell out of whatever this nonsense is!"

"I think," 9S said hesitantly. "I think he's human… I'm getting all of these weird warning signs popping up in my visual feed. Besides, don't you want to get to the bottom of… whatever this is? Come on, it's not like we have anything better to do. Maybe this guy knows a thing or two. He seems nice enough, maybe he can help us."

"Yeah, come on Devola," Wyatt's voice sounded off from behind, nearly causing the two of them to leap straight out of their synthetic skin.

"You've got nothing better to do."

That innocent looking smile had long disappeared by the time it took for the duo to turn around and face him. Wyatt gave them both a stern glare, aiming his revolver in their direction.

"Now, I'm only gonna ask you circus freaks once and I expect an answer. Who were those skeletons and what are they doing here?"

Suddenly, Wyatt did not seem like such a nice person to 9S. The kid realized real quick that he had spoken too soon.

With Devola too stunned to say a word, 9S stammered, trying to come up with some sort of response. He said the first word that came to mind during his disorientated state.

" _What?_ "

Not exactly the response Wyatt was looking to hear. Whether in a fit of frustration or just for the sake of proving a point, Wyatt pointed his Model 29 straight at Devola's head and fired a single round. The entry wound was small. The bullet tore through flesh, metal, wiring, and artificial muscle with relative ease.

Within the blink of an eye, the entire backside of her head exploded into nothing more than a cloud of gore. Brain matter, iron cogs, and gallons of blood all gushed forth in one massive wave. As she hit the ground, 9S immediately backed off.

"Huh," Wyatt muttered in surprise. "A robot?"

Caught off guard for a moment, and that was apparently all the kid in the blindfold needed to leap forward and wrap his mechanical fingers around Wyatt's revolver.

Wyatt kept a firm grip on the gun and looked down to see exactly how the kid had grabbed it. As he had hoped, the kid's hands were on the cylinder.

" _Big mistake_ ," Wyatt murmured.

9S was careful to force the barrel away from him. Regardless of the obvious fact that muzzle was no longer pointed in his direction, Wyatt fired the weapon with a sick smile on his face. The cylinder turned counterclockwise underneath the kid's grip. A massive torrent of energy was suddenly released from the gap between the frame and the cylinder.

A wave of fire accompanied that ring of force as the bullet was fired. 9S' gloves offered no protection from it. 9S stumbled back, gasping in pain as he tried to move his chard hands as far away from the cylinder as possible.

Wyatt admired the destruction he had caused. Burnt circuitry and scorched metal were left exposed by the blast.

9S was left staggering to keep his footing on the sand. All the while, Wyatt held off on beating the living daylights out of him, or simply shooting him. He gave the kid a chance to recover, or at least, a chance for his hearing to return to him before saying anything.

"I said I was only going to ask once," Wyatt informed. "Whatever, I'll figure it out myself. Thanks for wasting my time."

Wyatt turned his back and started off in the direction that Jeep was headed.

"I wonder if I can hack him," 9S asked himself as he watched Wyatt leave. In a last-ditch effort to figure out who or what Wyatt is, he extended his arms forward. Several bolts of gold light fired off from the tips of his fingers and struck Wyatt in the head.

Wyatt stopped in his tracks. A second later, and he slowly turned around with a somewhat puzzled expression. "The hell was that?"

"You," 9S stated in utter bewilderment. "You really are human, aren't you?"

Wyatt gave the kid a toothy grin and lightly shook his head. "Not quite. But I guess our definitions are gonna be a little different. Honestly, though, have you not figured it out yet?"

"Figured what out?"

"You're in a video game," Wyatt flatly responded. "You're nothing but a character who's been spat out of a 3D rendering software and shoved into this trippy game world. You were designed for someone's entertainment. You and I seem to have that in common."

Wyatt waited for a response. He wondered if 9S would come to any realization, or react with anything but confusion, yet he had expected too much.

"W-what are you talking about?"

His grin grew after hearing the kid's response. Instead of elaborating, he simply hoisted his revolver up in the air and pointed it straight at the android's head.

"I suppose I can spare a few minutes if you wanna find out for yourself. Come on, draw that sword if you're feelin' lucky. Let's see if you can clear the distance between us before I have a chance to blow your brains out."

9S did as told, he drew his sword and stood there, waiting for an opening. Unfortunately, he was not given enough time to find one. At the sight of Wyatt slowly squeezing that trigger, he bolted forward.

For a second, Wyatt could have sworn 9S had outright disappeared as he fired off a round. A microsecond later, and he found himself blocking the kid's blade. 9S pushed against his revolver while his sword was hooked in between the gun's barrel and the trigger guard.

Wyatt smirked at the sight. "That's the idea, kid. Give the people what they wanna see! Let's make it entertaining."

* * *

Paul and JC both came to after that strange encounter. They found themselves staring into a dark void. The only lights came from what appeared to be neon green lines of code that rained down from the heavens.

"What," Paul asked, baffled by what he was seeing. The two were so distracted that they failed to even notice Sayori fleeing from them, or perhaps they simply did not care at this point.

"I don't understand," JC muttered. "I'm honestly speechless."

"It's like we've just entered another world," Paul stated in awe. Suddenly, he got an idea. "Alex," he called out. "Alex, can you hear me!?"

JC observed his brother's silence and reached his own conclusion about the situation without needing to contact Alex himself. "Guess he can't hear us. Odd, we should be able to reach him from across the world."

"Exactly," Paul agreed. "So, where the hell are we?"

"Maybe that girl will have some answers for us."

"Good thinking," Paul said with a firm nod. He took a look around but saw no sign of her. "Did you see which way she went."

JC shrugged in confusion.

"Oh, well," Paul sighed. "Let's just start moving. I'm sure we're bound to come across some clues in… whatever this place is."


	11. Torment

**Torment**

Monika stood in the middle of a rather ugly looking city. It was filled with dirt and grime. Spikes were mounted on every building for _some_ reason.

An equally filthy people inhabited such a place. From the numerous and extremely obvious prostitutes that littered the alleyways to the various peasants, knights, and the occasional outright demon that moved about around her, everyone seemed to somehow fit right in.

As it stood, with her clean and otherwise mundane appearance compared to the nonsense around her, Monika felt a bit out of place.

Before she had time to truly process the weird visuals this game was throwing at her, a voice sounded off from behind.

"Hey, you!"

She ignored it at first. The sound of a man's voice that she had never heard before. He definitely had an accent as well, but she could not quite place it. Regardless, she ignored the voice, assuming it was just some random NPC chatter in the background. She had been hearing a lot of that ever since she launched the game.

"Hey! I'm talkin' to ya!"

Once again, Monika kept her eyes locked on the path before her. She kept listening and surely enough, that voice continued trying to get someone's attention.

" _Hello!?_ "

Suddenly, another voice spoke out in response to the first. A deeper more stern voice. "Forget it, Morte. She isn't the same woman."

"I can see that, Chief," Morte argued. "Doesn't exactly change the fact that she's still wearing the exact same outfit."

There was a brief pause before Morte shouted something else, this time confirming to Monika that it was not just random banter. "Hey! You with the white bow in your hair!"

Monika finally turned around and immediately regretted ever doing so. She was met with the curious stares of two, particularly strange individuals. The one on the right was a tall man with numerous scars all over his body. He had pale skin and his outfit mostly consisted of various bones and tattered cloth.

The other character was nothing more than a floating skull with two bulging eyes and nothing more. Together, they observed her with a strange sense of familiarity.

"Who, me," Monika inquired after a moment of silence.

"Yeah, you," the skull insisted. Monika was easily able to determine that one to be Morte given his distinct voice.

"That's a strange outfit you've got on," Morte commented. "Not gonna lie. I'm a fan of it. Especially that skirt. Although, it ain't the first time we've seen it on someone. A girl about your age waltzed on through the Hive and spoke to us a bit. You wouldn't happen to be a friend of hers would ya? Her name was... uh… Hey Chief! You remember that woman's name?"

In a stoic tone, the man replied to Morte's question. "It was exotic. Yuri, I think."

Monika's smile quickly turned sour at the mere mention of that name. "No," she quickly corrected. "I'm no friend of hers, but I do know her. Purple hair, right?"

"Yeah," Morte said with a nod. "Yuri. How could I forget her name? Loved her company. Loved every bit of her company. Again, just can't get over that skirt. Especially since if you angle yourself just right..."

Morte suddenly descended toward the ground and tilted his skull in an odd direction. Realizing what he was attempting, Monika swiftly kicked a nearby rock up into the air which managed to strike Morte on his forehead.

The skull immediately elevated himself once more and let out a defeated groan.

"Forgive my friend," the _Nameless One_ announced. "His body clearly isn't the only thing he's lost."

Morte shot a nasty glare at him in response. "You calling' me impotent?"

The Nameless One furrowed a confused brow at his floating companion and slowly shook his head. "I was calling you brainless but that works too."

"Don't you have a journal or something to go find? Maybe make yourself useful and go find Dak'kon? Just run along and let the lady and I have some alone time."

"And don't you have a body to track down," the Nameless One retorted. "So how about we get going, hmm? The longer we stand around doing nothing, the more time it will take to find what we're looking for."

"You got me all wrong, Chief," Morte explained. "I'm not one to do nothing. I'm about to get some action. Not that you would know anything about that."

Monika quietly observed as their back and forth quickly devolved into nonsensical bickering. She took a deep breath. It had become painfully obvious that she would be here for awhile, not that she had anything better to do while she waited for her game to finish downloading.

* * *

Paul and JC quietly walked through the void. They kept a keen eye out for anything suspicious. For the most part, their exploration had proved to be quite uneventful. The Denton brothers made their way through this strange realm with no way of knowing where they would end up.

Strange letters and numbers rained down around them. At first, they thought it was nothing more than gibberish, but after so much time spent wandering around aimlessly, JC stopped his tracks. Paul did the same after realizing that his brother was no longer keeping up with his pace. He turned back to see JC studying one of the nearby lines of neon green text as it rained down from the sky in a thin stream, like a line of digital thread.

Suddenly, without uttering a word, JC darted to another line of green code, then another. He finally turned to face his brother.

"These lines of text," JC flatly remarked. "They aren't random dribble. They look like directories. Files and programs."

Paul took another look at one of these falling streams and examined the text. "You're right," he said in bewilderment. "I'm seeing file extensions and backslashes. What's going on? This landscape doesn't make any sense."

"It's like we're trapped in an alternate computer dimension," JC announced. "I can't wrap my head around..."

JC was suddenly interrupted by the distant sound of what they both assumed to be crying. The two brothers glanced at each other curiously upon hearing this rather disturbing sound. With nothing more to go on, they set out in search of the source of that unsettling crying.

* * *

The digital void was filled with a girl's morbid crying. Alice hunkered down awhile ago could not help but sob as her body flickered in and out of existence. What little assets of her game, or rather, what remnants of her Wonderland remained was quickly fading away.

A wave of pain fell upon her each time her body glitched out. A coldness followed. It was as if death had a firm grasp over her heart and was merely waiting for the right time to pull her down into the underworld.

She kept her head down. The screams from those who resided in her now shattered realm had become to difficult to hear just as their suffering had become too painful to watch; so she covered her ears and hid her eyes. It had grown quiet after a while. She was almost certain that she was the only one still alive.

A familiar voice called out to her from somewhere nearby.

" _I believe we are the only ones left alive._ "

She lifted her gaze ever so slightly in response. Alice was at least somewhat relieved to see that she was not alone. That talking cat stared back at her with that strange and abnormal smile.

"Such a strange confrontation," the cat announced. "I sit here honestly wondering if I missed something. I cannot understand why briefly interacting with that girl would lead her to commit such a vile act of violence against you."

"I did nothing to her," Alice snapped. "Absolutely nothing! You saw the whole incident transpire! She attacked me!"

"That may be so, but I'd say you still lost," the cat explained. "Which leads to my next question. I feel death creeping up my spine. I fear our time in life has been cut short by her. Any moment now and we will both disappear into the next life. So, what exactly do you plan to do now?"

* * *

9S bolted over a dune, narrowly missing yet another bullet that nearly took of his head as he ducked for cover. He tumbled down the sandy hill all while never allowing himself to lose grip of his sword.

In frustration, he scanned the skies for any sign of 'back up.' While he had not noticed it before, he found it odd that he was the only one out here.

"Where is my damn pod," he exclaimed. He continued to search the skies for that little robot but he saw no trace of it. "It's times like this when I'm reminded about how useful those pods are. The one thing I need right now is firepower and that just so happens to be the main thing my pod offers. I got lucky the first time, but I can't close the distance again without ending up like Devola. At this rate, I might as well just try to retreat and meet up with those skeleton guys."

The more he looked up, the more he could just barely make out a series of strange green lights shimmering high overhead. It looked as if glowing threads were falling from the sky. They were too far away to make out any remarkable details, but they almost made the entire sky look semitransparent the longer he observed them.

His staring did not last long before he felt a boot hit him at full force on the right side of his head. Having been kicked in the face did prove to bring 9S' full attention back to more pressing matters such as a stranger shooting at him.

He leaped back onto his feet and charged Wyatt; all the while praying that his head would not be removed from his shoulders in the process.

Wyatt stood in place and observed his advance. As he drew closer, Wyatt took aim and fired one more round. His intention was to fire multiple, but on the second trigger pull, all he heard was a click.

He only had a microsecond before that robot kid cleared the distance between them. Before he knew it, he was once again forced to dodge a flurry of swings from the panicked android's sword.

"Drop the gun! I don't wanna fight you! You're human, I can help you," 9S pleaded as continuously swung his sword at Wyatt. None of his strikes managed to hit anything.

"Cool backstory," Wyatt complemented as he kicked 9S in the gut, causing the kid to stumble back a few crucial steps. He could not help but wince at the pain of having his foot collided with synthetic flesh and metal plating. Kicking a robot may not have been his best idea yet.

Wyatt took the opportunity to dump out the rounds and empty casings from his revolver. 9S recovered as quickly as possible only to see him reloading his weapon. He took his own chance and charged forward.

By the time he reached his opponent, that barrel was already aimed at his head. A mere inch closer and it would be poking him in the cheek. He froze upon seeing this. His sword was just barely pressed against Wyatt's chest, hovering just over his heart.

A series of clicks broke the silence. Clicks of the revolver's hammer as Wyatt cocked it. 9S did not dare move, knowing the only thing that was currently keeping him from losing his head was the positioning of his own weapon.

"Stop it," he screamed in a panic, his voice slightly cracking under the stress. "You're human! Don't make me do it!"

Wyatt only responded with a wide, sadistic grin. He seemed ultimately unfazed by the situation at hand.

"Do you wanna die," 9S shouted in a pleaded voice, all the while hoping that by some miracle, this would end peacefully.

Wyatt rolled his eyes at the distressed cyborg. " _Do you?_ "

Realizing that he was still at a disadvantage, 9S gave up on reason. He plunged the sword forward with all his available strength. The sword ran straight through Wyatt's sternum and out the back of his spine, impaling his heart in the process.

In response to the pain, Wyatt squeezed the trigger, blasting 9S' head off. Blood spewed in either direction as the two combatants fell backward.

As quickly as the violence had started. It was already over.

* * *

Monika followed that floating skull and nameless man to a, particularly spiky building. She read a sign posted at the front entrance before following them in. The sign read, ' _Smoldering Corpse_.'

She shrugged at the odd name before venturing forth. Upon entering, she was immediately greeted by an unusual setting. Her attention was drawn to the center of the bar. There was a large grate in the floor. Above it was what appeared to be a man suspended in midair and engulfed in flames.

Naturally, she felt compelled to inquire about that.

"Uh, so what's up with that guy?"

The Nameless One and Morte both glanced back to her. A microsecond had passed before either of them were able to figure out who she was asking about.

"Oh," Morte carelessly replied. "That's just Ignus. Ignore him. He's crazy."

" _Attention: Morte_ ," an almost automated voice sounded off from up ahead.

The floating skull appeared visibly disgruntled by the mere sound of that voice. He let out a long, pained sigh before averting his eyes in the direction of that horrid voice. Monika followed his gaze and eventually spotted the source of the disturbance.

She had a hard time describing what she was seeing. It looked like a television screen with some odd face manifested on the monitor. The mechanized creature had four arms and a pair of legs. It was the most bizarre little robot she had ever seen. Not that she had encountered many robots in her day, to begin with.

"What," Morte asked in a somewhat defeated tone. "What are you even doing here you little..."

"Morte," the creature interjected. "I have an inquiry regarding our previous conversation. Specifically, I would like to clarify when and how you will attempt to mate with both Annah and Fall-from-Grace this time."

" _Not again_ ," another voice sounded off in the direction of a nearby table. This time, the voice was relatively feminine. Whoever was speaking definitely had an accent. One that Monika guessed was Scottish, but she could not tell for certain.

Morte stared at the little machine in utter contempt. He floated there for a while before mustering up a response. He let out another annoyed sigh and addressed the creature's curiosity.

"Why do I bother telling you anything?"

"Attempting to answer my question with another question is not recommended," the machine informed. "To avoid further confusion..."

"Shut up, already," Morte interjected. "Come on, Nordom. Don't ya see we have a guest? You're gonna scare her off before I have a chance to get to know her."

Morte floated toward Monika, giving her a sly look with his googly eyes that seemed to just barely be clinging to his sockets. "Ignore the freak-show. Just stay close to me and I'll keep ya safe. Feel free to hold onto me if ya want."

Monika quickly leaned away from the floating skull. As she contemplated whether or not she should get her revolver involved in the discussion or not, she noticed two equally bizarre figures approaching the group.

Both were women. One of them had blonde hair and a pair of large demonic wings. The other was a redhead, but instead of having wings, she had a tail. Monika's left eye twitched at the sight of them. She was beginning to think entering this game was nothing more than a terrible mistake.

"Well, who might this be," the winged woman asked in an oddly serene tone that contradicted her horrifying wings.

"Ain't you that girl we met earlier," the redhead inquired, scratching her head at Monika's appearance which was apparently familiar to her.

"She bears no resemblance to Yuri apart from the attire," the other woman retorted calmly. She then shifted her gaze back to Monika and smiled politely. "My name is Fall-from-Grace, and this here is Annah. It's a pleasure to meet you..."

"I can introduce myself, succubus," Annah snapped. "Why don't ya go back to the depths, already?"

"I would prefer to linger so long as my presence does not prove a bother to the others," Fall-from-Grace said with an almost proud nod. "Besides, with how many times I have had the privilege to save you from your own rash habits; I feel as though I would not be able to sleep well knowing that you would be carrying on without my guidance."

"Slimy wench," Annah hissed. "Keep at it and I'll make ya regret followin' us."

"Oh, come on, ladies," Morte interrupted. His cocky grin only earned him a glare from both women. Annah's being particularly sharp. "Why fight in a time like this? Of course, I understand what this is all about. How many times do I have to say it? There's plenty of me to go around. No need to have a cat fight every time I enter the room."

"You understand nothin' but yer own delusions, skull," Annah argued. "Just butt out."

As the argument became all-encompassing, Monika decided to pick an empty seat and silently watch the constant bickering over something. She honestly had no idea what they were all fighting over.

Regardless, Monika had nothing better to do. She remembered how slow her download was coming along. It would be awhile before a fresh copy of her own game would be fully operational. In the meantime, she decided to kick back and watch the mayhem.

All the while, she kept wondering how long it would take for this argument to turn violent.


	12. Mell Rhodes

**Mell Rhodes**

Wyatt fled the desert shortly after his encounter with that white-haired robot. He had his eyes set on another game. An out of the way game. He was not interested in entertainment but securing a forward base for himself.

He remembered seeing that skeletal crew that was patrolling the desert. They did not fit in that game at all. That robot also seemed to be aware of Wyatt's presence in the game which was something he only briefly noticed in that rather annoying British girl from one of his previous excursions into these weird video games.

The fact that his presence was so clearly affecting the self-awareness of the characters in these other games gave him the idea for this little experiment. The other members of his former literature club could fight among themselves. He was in no rush to deal with the two that remained. For now, the idea of inserting himself into a game for an extended period of time was all he could think about. He wanted to see what would happen, and more importantly, he needed a hideout.

He dove into the game without a second thought. The only interesting thing he noticed about the game was that it appeared to be a visual novel. A rare sight in this hard drive which was primarily filled with shooters.

Before embarking on this new excursion, Wyatt made sure to delete the game he visited previously. He watched the code scatter into nothingness. Files and data were banished to the depths of the hard drive. It relieved him greatly.

Out of sight.

Out of mind.

* * *

Monika explained her situation to her new audience. She described her entire adventure to them without going over any of the unimportant details.

Of course, her little tale of leaping through video game after video game; all while blatantly explaining why her new friends were living in nothing more than a digital fantasy world did not go without casting a spell of confusion over her audience.

"Wait a minute," Morte began with obvious doubt in his voice. "It sounds to me like you've just been leapin' through planes."

Monika furrowed a brow at the floating skull. "Uh… come again? Leaping through planes?"

"Well, yeah! You've just found a way to enter different planes. Not a big deal or anything. People do that kinda thing all the time, especially here in Sigil."

The woman snickered in an almost condescending fashion. Her tone only reinforced that mocking laugh. "You aren't following me, because you aren't able to understand what I mean. You exist as part of an interactive story. Your lives, if you can be considered living which I don't think you can, are dictated by data, variables, and a game engine. This conversation we're having can be considered nothing more than a glitch in this matrix you call a world. Unlike you people, I'm human. I'm alive! I exist independently of these programs which is why I'm able to visit all of the other virtual worlds that surround this one. Unlike you, I am aware of myself."

Morte glanced at the scarred man next to him with those googly eyes of his. The Nameless One eventually mustered a response while Morte was still trying to comprehend Monika's strange terminology.

"I'm sorry, I don't follow. What makes you think you're the only person who is aware of their self? What drives you to believe that my friends and I aren't alive? You describe us like machines. However, I'm actively having this conversation with you."

"Just as I am actively listening to you," Fall-from-Grace interjected. "I can only be aware of my surroundings if I am already aware of my own existence. If nobody in this room was as aware of themselves as you then we would have probably ignored you even if you had tried to interact with us. We would not know of your existence despite sitting at this table with us. If the world or worlds are as you say, then you do not belong here. You could drop in anytime but would be unable to intervene in our lives because to us, or rather, the predetermined existence we are apparently assigned to would not acknowledge you. We, in turn, would not be able to acknowledge your presence."

"Yeah," Morte agreed.

He had nothing to follow up with. He had no idea what was even being talked about. However, Fall-from-Grace's argument at least sounded smart so he agreed with her. He then proceeded to wait for her to shower him with the praise he so rightfully deserved for taking her side, only to strangely be met with none of that.

Annah interrupted the conversation with a long, melodramatic sigh. She leaned back in her seat to the point where the two front legs were kicked up off the ground. The chair was kept from falling backward only by her own balance.

"Ugh! Ya done lost me."

"Tell me about it," Morte agreed as he turned his attention to Annah. "How about we blow this scene and go somewhere more romantic? Leave these clowns to their own devices."

"Can it, skull! I'd rather listen to them argue until my head explodes than humor your sick fantasies!"

Monika was not so quick to retort. Her downright offended glare shifted back and forth between Fall-from-Grace and the Nameless One. She had expected, nay, she had hoped that she could go on and on about these brainless manifestations of a developer's imagination all while they went about their prescripted business.

Unfortunately, things were not going according to plan. She debated back and forth with herself if she should either come up with some rebuttal to prove once and for all that she was the only sentient being on the hard drive, or to simply gun them all down for daring to disagree.

She thought back to Alice who displayed the same awareness of Monika despite the fact that she was not a character in Alice's freaky game. She remembered Sayori who inserted herself into Liberty Island and at least attempted to interact with her.

Questions began firing off in her mind, consuming her thoughts.

Could this all have been proof that her belief was internally incorrect? Did that mean the Strogg, HECU, alien wildlife, and NSF were all just as alive as she was? Had she been committing a real genocide against real people?

Monika violently shook her head. It was simply preposterous to even consider the possibility that these AIs were actually coming to life. Monika was merely playing a bunch of video games. They had no real weight behind them. They were not grounded in reality. She was the only real person on the hard drive. She was the only one capable of sentient thought. Thus, she was the only one who could truly be considered _alive_.

* * *

Wyatt found himself wandering around aimlessly in some massive mansion. The whole place smelled of roses. Around him, maids were busy either cleaning or tending to other duties, but no one questioned his presence. No one acknowledged him. His entrance when undisputed by anyone who crossed paths with him. They acted as if he were not even present and that was exactly how it should be.

So far, he had seen nothing out of the ordinary. Regardless, he found himself curious about his surroundings. It was a strange setting. Everyone was dressed as if it were the 1600s. Despite being a visual novel, the various maids among other servants were dressed in the sort of clothing you would expect an actual maid to wear rather than the more skimpy portrayal that Wyatt would have expected to see from such a game.

"The hell is this game about," Wyatt muttered to himself as he aimlessly roamed the halls.

As he passed by one maid in particularly, he could not help but get a double take of what he had just seen. She looked rather odd. A young woman who could not be much older or younger than himself. She had hair as white as that boy from the desert, and her skin was pale to the point of being creepy. She had a pair of blood red eyes that gave her a look that was downright vampiric.

The fact that she seemed to be purposefully avoiding the sunlight that flooded in from a nearby window while she went about her cleaning did not exactly fill Wyatt with confidence. He decided to keep on moving and hopefully clear some distance between himself and her before the blood lust had a chance to set in.

He moved further down the hall only to notice someone standing there, poking their head around a corner at the very end of this corridor. The hall made a sharp turn to the right and just behind that corner stood another strange character.

This young man, again, was probably around Wyatt's age. He had flaxen hair and wore an elaborate outfit. He had a green vest which he wore over a frilly white shirt. His pants were as brown as his eyes. He was dressed as if he were nobility and given the setting, Wyatt figured it was probably safe to assume that he was.

For a moment, Wyatt thought the boy was staring at him until he remembered the weird maid behind him. His eyes were obviously fixed on her. Wyatt made no effort to get involved with either one of them. The whole scene was just bizarre so he carried on walking.

Just as Wyatt prepared to turn the corner and walk straight past the maid's little stalker, the boy abruptly stepped out of hiding and putting himself directly in Wyatt's path. Wyatt jumped in surprise as the strange bumped into him. Instinctively, Wyatt placed his hand over his Model 29 and prepared to draw it.

A graphical glitch spawned between them. A pattern of green code became visible just for a second. The boy's image flickered like a light before everything returned to normalcy. When the glitches faded and both of them recovered from the unexpected body slam, the boy was the first to say anything.

"Oh, my. I'm sorry. I didn't see you there, sir."

Wyatt froze in place. He let go of his revolver's grip and stared the flaxen-haired boy down. He was utterly baffled.

"What just happened," was all he managed to ask.

The stranger awkwardly wrapped his left hand around the back of his neck and smiled. "My apologies. I was not trying to sneak up on anyone. I believe we've both just turned the same corner at the same time. Um… Might I ask your name, sir?"

"Name's Wyatt. Yours?"

"Mell," the boy replied. "Mell Rhodes."

That did not take long at all. The mere act of physical contact was enough to knock some self-awareness into this kid. If that was all it took, then Wyatt began to worry just how his intervention was affecting these other games.

"I was not informed that we were having a guest over today," Mell continued. "I take it you're here to meet Nellie?"

"Who?"

Mell was caught off guard by that response. "Uh, m-my sister, Nellie. We've had quite a few gentlemen over recently. My parents are hoping to have her married. Forgive me for the false assumption."

"Interesting," Wyatt murmured, not realizing that he was thinking aloud. "So it is a dating sim."

"Pardon?"

Wyatt was immediately pulled back to reality. He quickly shook his head at the sight of Mell's puzzled expression. " _Nothing_. No, I'm not here on a marriage proposal. I'm… on business so I'll be here for some time. Don't mind me."

"I see," Mell replied. Wyatt's little fib appeared to have worked. "So has anyone bothered showing you around yet. I can give you a tour if you'd like."

"Sure. I've got time."

Normally, Wyatt would have rejected such an offer no matter how friendly the intentions, but this was the whole reason he bothered entering this strange game. He wanted to see how his presence was affecting other characters which left him with no other option but to accept.

"Very well, then. Follow me."

Mell turned around and headed back down the way he came. Of course, he did not leave without first catching one last glimpse of that white-haired maid before he and Wyatt disappeared around the corner.

* * *

The conversation came to an uncomfortable halt. Monika thought of rebuking this nonsense about this strange band of characters being as lively and sentient as her, but she had work to do. She had no time to deal with these people, or rather, these digital sprites that resembled people only in appearance.

Monika promptly stood up and backed away from the table. She huffed and tilted her chin upward with obvious pride. No longer would she suffer the presence of mere AI that could only dream about concepts of humanity. She had already achieved it. In fact, she was born with it. However, she could not say the same for this ilk of inhumane automatons.

Strangely enough, she still felt the need to address the fact that she was leaving. Monika knew she was only speaking to a table surrounded by brainless polygons, but she decided to at least say something before parting ways with this group.

"I'm leaving," she announced. "I have other places to be and someone to find."

"Leavin' already," Morte asked in disappointment.

"Take me with ya," Annah pleaded. "Anywhere 'ill do so long as it's away from this babblin' skull."

"Oh, always playing hard to get," Morte interjected. "Don't worry, lass. I've got time for you too. There's plenty of Morte to go around."

As Annah and Morte devolved into arguing, Fall-from-Grace looked toward Monika and gave her an oddly friendly smile.

"I only ask you to consider the possibility that you are not alone. Consider the fact that you may not be the only one in this universe with a soul," she explained. "And we wish you the best of luck. Please, come back some time and visit with us."

That smile made Monika feel the slightest, most fleeting sensation of guilt. A feeling that was gone before she was made consciously aware of it. She wanted to blast that winged woman's head off for that condescending look and her eagerness to compare herself to Monika. For once, however, Monika was unable to muster the needed strength to kill someone.

Nordom bounced up from the ground and stepped in between Monika and the table.

"I have calculated the odds of Monika returning to be a 0.000000000001% chance!"

"Oh, come now, Nordom," Fall-from-Grace retorted. "I remain certain that she will be back."

Monika quietly nodded her head while maintaining a sorrowful frown that contradicted the smile Fall-from-Grace gave her. She turned away from the group and left the game without saying a word.

When she returned to the void, she briefly considered deleting that game as well. She never did and soon carried on with her business. She remained hopeful that the next game would be a normal one. A game where she would not have to think twice about blowing someone's brains out.

* * *

Positioned on the roof of a skyscraper that stood above a ruined city was a long yet not very wide rectangular table. Three candelabras lined the table. They were evenly spaced out. On either end of the table was a chair.

The chair on the left was occupied by a shirtless man with a black tattoo sleeve running along his left arm. He wore black pants that were lined with a scale-like pattern. He had on matching gloves, short silver hair, and vivid red eyes.

The man in the other chair was almost identical in appearance to the other. The major difference between them was their hair. While the same color, he had a head of hair which reached well past his shoulders. He wore a white button-up shirt, a long black bow around his collar, and a pair of rectangular-framed glasses. Otherwise, he had similar gloves and pants to what was very clearly his identical twin.

While the long-haired man was quietly reading a book, his brother stared in awe at the sky. No longer was it bright and sunny. The sky appeared to have completely vanished. It was black and lined with rows upon rows of green code that fell from the dark abyss like rain. It was a concerning sight to say the absolute least.

The short-haired man looked to his brother with a nervous visage. "Um… Brother? The sky has... _changed_."

"I'm aware, Eve," the long-haired twin calmly replied without so much as breaking eye contact with his book for even a split second.

"W-what should we do, Adam? Is this supposed to happen?"

"I don't believe it is, dearest brother," Adam informed, once again never looking up from his book nor showing any concern at all. "Let me reach a good stopping point in this book, and we'll investigate this phenomenon further."

"Okay..."

Eve sat back in his chair and quietly observed the sky. He had read about the concept of night before, but this was very obviously not the sort of nighttime sky he had envisioned. It came out of nowhere. A moment earlier and the sky was bright and blue. Then, suddenly, everything went dark. Those enigmatic lines of text rained down at a constant rate but he was never able to touch one. They disappeared before they came to close to his level of altitude.

"I wonder what those lines say," Eve pondered aloud as he squinted his eyes in a futile attempt to read some of the floating green text.

"They're file directories," Adam nonchalantly interjected. "From the looks of it, at least. A most curious sight."

Eve blinked in awe. He was not expecting an actual answer. He had also anticipated that his brother was paying no mind to the situation at hand. He was relieved to have been proven wrong.

While he was eager to get to the bottom of this mystery in the sky, Eve made no further effort to interrupt his brother's reading time nor did he try to rush him along.

Eve waited patiently, and as always, cherished the quiet time spent with his dear brother.

* * *

 _Note: Sorry about the hiatus, but between other projects and my lack of satisfaction with how this story was originally turning out, Fantasia had to be put on the wayside._

 _I will have more on that in a future update as I am currently working on implementing some minor changes into two previous chapters as well as adding some additional stuff, so stay tuned for that._

 _I'm gonna go ahead and just announce this new game being introduced since unlike Half-Life, Deus Ex, or Planescape: Torment it is not exactly a well known classic. Wyatt has entered a really obscure VN on called The House in Fata Morgana._

 _It's a weird little visual novel that seems to draw a lot of inspiration from the story of Morgan le Fay as well as some rather spooky historical events such as the Bell Witch and the Beast of Gévaudan._

 _I'm intentionally avoiding spoilers about Mell simply because of the fact that I'm sure most people reading this have never heard of it. I'd definitely recommend it to any fan of Doki Doki Literature Club._


	13. Machine Gun

**Machine Gun**

Mell led Wyatt throughout his home. They passed by room after room. Out of all the servants they passed along the way, Mell only ever bothered to introduce him to one of them.

A tall, black-haired maid with green eyes. She only gave Wyatt a quiet nod before disappearing deeper into the mansion. That was the second person to acknowledge him. He began to wonder if he was inadvertently taking the place of the player. He decided to hang out with Mell for the mere sake of getting to the bottom of this mystery.

As they came to one closed off room, in particular, Mell stopped and gestures toward it.

"This is my sister's room. Mine is just down the hall. There are a couple of guest rooms around here. We should see about getting one prepared for you."

"That won't be necessary," Wyatt interrupted. "Just show me the best spot in the house to set up a machine gun nest and I'll be happy."

Mell tilted his head curiously at the remark. "Huh? Machine gun nest?"

Wyatt fell quiet for a moment. At first, he assumed Mell was simply joking with him but after taking another look at the boy's clothes as well as the general aesthetic of the mansion, Wyatt simply had to ask the first question that came to mind.

"What year is it?"

"Uh… The year is 1603. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, that explains it," Wyatt announced with a sinister grin. "Tell you what. Just show me to the place with the best view of the property. What's the best vantage point in the house?"

"Well, that would most certainly be the observatory," Mell remarked without hesitation.

Wyatt's eyes widened. "You have one of those?"

"We do. I'm not exactly sure why. As far as I know, it was here before my family purchased the property. We believe it was a church at one point. Anyway, follow me. I'll show you."

* * *

The deeper the Denton brothers ventured into the void, the more endless this cyberpunk limbo seemed to be. For the longest time, they marched through the depths in total silence. An unsettled, digital silence. Eventually, Paul could not bear it. He had to talk about something less this empty space drive him insane.

"So, did you ever hear about what happened to that rookie and the defective microwave?"

"First story I heard in training," JC replied. "Poor guy. What a shame..."

A voice abruptly called out to them from the depths.

"Greetings!"

JC and Paul immediately stopped in their tracks. They quickly spotted the source of that ominous voice. Standing to their left they spotted a pair of men with white hair and red eyes. They were definitely a strange duo. That much was obvious.

"Woah," JC muttered in his usual robotic monotone. "Get a load of these guys."

One of the strangers gave the augmented duo a menacing smile. "My name is Adam and this is my brother, Eve."

"I'm Paul, and this is my brother, JC. We're with UNATCO."

Adam furrowed a curious brow at the two agents. "UNATCO?"

"You guys know what's going on out here," asked JC.

Adam slowly shook his head. "We were actually hoping to find someone who could answer that question for us. It appears the sky is... broken? I cannot quite wrap my head around this issue."

"Seems we're in the same situation," JC announced. He hesitated for a moment before continuing. "My brother and I were chasing a lead now. A teenage girl that ran through here a little while ago. Have you seen her?"

The two twins glanced at each other. Eventually, Adam spoke for the two of them. "We have not. You are the first people we've seen out here."

"I see," replied JC. "Well, we'd better be off. If we meet again then we'll be sure to let you know if we find anything out."

Adam seemed surprised by this response. He almost appeared slightly dejected. Paul had a similar look on his face. He turned to his augmented brother, but JC said nothing to him.

"Very well," Adam said hesitantly. "Hope to see you again soon..."

JC turned and walked back the way they came. Paul quickly followed after them. As they moved forward, Paul glanced back to see Adam and Eve standing there, watching them leave. They made no effort to follow.

As soon as that admittedly strange duo was out of sight, Paul made his concerns known.

"What was that about, JC? We could have invited them to tag along. It'd be better to work in a larger group. We could cover more ground and get more done."

"Those guys seemed off," JC remarked in his usual monotone. "I was getting bad vibes from them. I think we're better off going it alone for now."

"If you say so..."

* * *

As Wyatt was led to the observatory they nearly rammed straight into a young flaxen-haired woman who came running down the corridor. She slid to a stop mere inches away from them.

The woman wore a strange dress. It was colorful and topped off with a corset that resembled the wings of a monarch. She smiled at Mell but that happy expression quickly went sour when she noticed Wyatt.

"Morning, Dearest Mell. Um... Who's this?"

"Oh, this is Wyatt. He's here on business from what I'm told. I suppose you're actually here to visit with father, yes?"

Nellie adopted a more cynical frown when she heard this. "Father is away, right now. He won't be back for another week."

"That's fine," Wyatt stammered in an attempt to quash her obvious suspicion. "I'm already aware of this."

"Then why are you here now," Nellie bluntly asked. "Shouldn't you come back later?"

Mell stepped in between the two and gave Nellie a stern glare. "That's enough, sister! This is not the way we treat our guests."

"Pardon me," Nellie replied.

She reached forward and took hold of Mell's arm. Quite a strange sight for Wyatt to see. It appeared to him that Nellie was just a little too touchy with Mell. She seemed to make a conscious effort to stand rather close to him as well. Wyatt could not help but find her to be somewhat creepy.

"I just find it odd that he would need to be here when Father left a few days ago and won't be back for another week."

" _Interesting_ ," Wyatt muttered quietly to himself. " _So daddy's off on a 'business trip' again. Nothing suspicious about that._ "

His little remark went ignored by the two siblings who either did not hear him or did not get the implications of what he said.

"Enough already," Mell exclaimed in a surprisingly aggressive tone. "We won't hear any more of it. This attitude is unbecoming of you, Nellie."

Nellie promptly stormed off. Wyatt found the whole conversation strange. Once again, he was left wondering if this was a scripted event or not. That robot in the desert was just as quick to acknowledge him as Mell and Nellie were. He had a hard time remaining skeptical at that point.

Mell turned back to face Wyatt. He gave his guest an apologetic smile. "I apologize on behalf of my sister. She normally is not like this. I haven't the slightest clue what has gotten into her!"

"Never mind that," Wyatt replied. He was thankful that this boy was not neatly as inquisitive as his sister. For a moment, Wyatt was worried that he was going to have to draw down on the both of them.

"Very well," Mell exclaimed with enthusiasm. "This way to the observatory!"

* * *

Mell led Wyatt to the entrance of the observatory. Mell suddenly came to a stop in front of the stairwell ahead.

He took a few steps back and scanned the area. Mell then remembered a crucial detail.

"Well, this is annoying," Mell announced. "The door upstairs is normally left locked, and I'm afraid I don't have a key."

"Well, we'd better find one," Wyatt remarked. "Those MG-42s I've been saving for a rainy day ain't gonna mount themselves."

Before Mell could respond, a timid voice spoke out from behind. "Pardon? Is there an issue, Master?"

The duo turned to see a lone maid standing a fair distance away from them. Wyatt recognized her immediately. It was the same maid he saw earlier. Her long white hair and red eyes were unmistakable.

"Ah," Mell exclaimed with a welcoming smile. "Just in time. You wouldn't happen to have a key on you?"

"For the observatory," asked the White-Haired Girl.

Mell patiently nodded.

The servant pulled out a ring of keys and fumbled with them until she found the correct one. She held it out for the two to see.

"Always appreciated," Mell remarked. "By the way, this is Wyatt. He'll be staying with us for some time so I was giving him a tour of the property. Care to join us?"

"Well, I have been asked to clean a few rooms, and I'd be worried about getting in trouble if they aren't done by noon."

Mell gestured for the entrance to the observatory, all while giving her a far more genuine smile than he did with Nellie. At least, that was what Wyatt saw at any rate.

"Worry not," Mell reassured. "You'll be helping our guest. I'll make sure there won't be any trouble over the issue."

The White-Haired Girl nodded her head.

Mell then promptly led the way, beckoning for his two companions to follow suit.

They traversed a winding staircase that was almost fantastical in appearance. It spiraled upward at a rather steady pace. The stairs were abnormally steep and there was never a point in which one was turning a corner.

While annoying at first, Wyatt eventually found strategic value in these thin steps.

"This would be a great choke point," he muttered to himself. He was practically salivating over the mental image of a mounted machine gun positioned at the top of this long stairwell. Suddenly, he knew exactly where he would be spending most of his time.

"So what exactly were you planning to put up here," asked Mell. The boy either did not hear Wyatt think aloud to himself or he did not care to respond.

"An MG-42," Wyatt said bluntly.

Mell turned around but he continued to walk up the stairs. Wyatt followed him quietly and prayed to the heavens that he would fall and make a proper fool of himself. Seeing such a thing would complete his day.

"And what's an MG-42? This isn't the first time you've mentioned it."

"It's a gift from God," Wyatt informed nonchalantly. He smiled in a sort of way that made Mell feel uneasy. "The type of weapon that'll make a soldier's life ten times easier. Set it up properly, know what you're doing, and you can kill a hell of a lot of people in a very short amount of time."

"Uh," Mell stammered. "That sounds rather gruesome."

Wyatt averted his eyes downward. Suddenly, he nodded, gesturing toward Mell's feet. "Careful. Your shoe is..."

Mell immediately lost his balance and began tumbling backward. He attempted to regain his footing, but he only delayed the inevitable. Just when he was about to fall, however, he felt a hand grab hold of his collar.

He opened his eyes to see Wyatt looming over him, giving the boy a mocking grin.

"Untied," he murmured in his usual monotone. He then promptly released his grip on Mell's collar and allowed him to hit the stairs. Casually, Wyatt resumed his trek up the steps, leaving Mell behind.

"Are you okay," asked the White-Haired Girl.

Mell did not respond. He merely stood up and chased after Wyatt. "Sounds like quite the weapon," he called out, acting as if nothing had happened.

"Are you the inventor? Perhaps you're looking for an investment from my father? If so, I can definitely be of help in that regard. If what you say is true, then this could be a very profitable venture for him. It sounds positively revolutionary."

"I didn't invent them," Wyatt said with an eerie chuckle. "I'm only putting them to use."

"I see," Mell remarked as he practically ran after Wyatt. "Did my father already invest in some sort of new uh… what would you call this?"

He glanced at the White-Haired Girl who merely shrugged her shoulders at him.

"Security measure," he guessed. "We have no guards posted, at least, none that I am aware of so, in theory, there is nothing preventing a burglary."

"Oh, they'll stop a burglary all right," Wyatt darkly joked. "Stop a couple of 'em. At a time."

When they reached the top, Wyatt was not particularly impressed with what he saw. He took a look around and promptly nodded his head.

"Guess I can work with this," he murmured allowed. "Can use that corner to stockpile ammo. Wouldn't take much to turn this place into a worthwhile MG nest. Land mines wouldn't be a terrible idea either."

Wyatt peered through one of the windows which gave him a decent view of a massive rose garden behind the mansion. He paid no mind to the colorful flowers that decorated the landscape. It was the flat space that caught his attention.

"That area would be perfect for a couple of Howitzers."

Mell leaned in to see what had caught Wyatt's eye. He adopted a somewhat smug smile at the sight of the rose garden.

"How about we go take a closer look at the rose garden? It's my home's main attraction. My mother's pride and joy."

He turned toward the pale maid and gestured for the stairs that led back down into the main halls of the mansion. "Have you had a chance to see it since you've been here? I'd be more than happy to show you as well."

Wyatt glanced over his shoulder at the awkward duo. For some reason, he could not help but feel impending tragedy about to strike at any moment. He chalked it up to anticipating another attack, which he was right to do so.

He put the feeling at the back of his mind and continued to follow Mell throughout the massive home. All the while, he kept away from that pale girl. Mell seemed to be somewhat fond of her. Perhaps it was merely her enigmatic beauty which even Wyatt could see. Despite that, he still viewed her as being a little on the creepy side, and that opinion did not appear to be going away anytime soon.

* * *

Wyatt only left the mansion once to grab the equipment he needed to fortify the location. He set up two MG-42s in the observatory and left a stockpile of land mines in the cellar. He always intended to throw a portion of the out into the rose garden, but given how many times Mell's favorite maid visited it, that did not seem like the best idea.

He mentally chuckled at the mental image of the girl stepping on one and promptly being blasted into the stratosphere. Fortunately for the White-Haired Girl, the value of those land mines far outweighed that of her own life as well as the apparent humor Wyatt found in watching her explode.

For the most part, he kept to himself. He watched as the days went by. He spent his time observing Mell in particular. Whenever the boy was not interacting with him, he went about his predetermined business. Mell mainly spent his time doing one of two things. Either he could be found chatting up an awkward storm with that mysterious White-Haired Girl or he was busy ignoring his sister.

As time marched on, Wyatt's outlook on Nellie was only solidified. She was nothing short of creepy. The time Mell spent with that young maid seemed to directly coincide with Nellie's growing aggression. The fact that her parents worked tirelessly to marry her off did not appear to help the situation much.

Wyatt found himself roaming the halls of the mansion like a lost soul on one, particularly boring day. Everything played out as a normal day until he turned a corner and spotted Nellie darting down the corridor. She headed straight for him at a rapid pace.

He managed to dodge her. As she ran past him Wyatt could hear her sobbing over something. He stopped and watched as she ran down the hall. Wyatt watched as she halted her stride and threw open a door to her right. A door leading to what he assumed was her bedroom. She promptly slammed the door shut, leaving Wyatt at a temporary loss for words.

"The fuck was that about," he inquired in a mumble.

"Sorry, You had to see that, Wyatt," a familiar voice called out from behind.

Wyatt turned to see Mell approaching him from down the hall. He waved as stepped forward and gave Wyatt an awkward smile.

"What's wrong with her," asked Wyatt.

"I believe my parents have finally become fed up with Nellie's unwillingness to grow up. Time and time again, they've given her the chance to choose a partner, but she's utterly refused. I'm unclear on all the details, but I believe father has set up a date for her and picked the gentleman himself."

"I see," Wyatt muttered as he turned back to face Nellie's bedroom door. "Seems to be upsetting her pretty bad. If I were you, I'd be worried about her mental state."

"Nonsense," Mell said dismissively. "She's just having another temper tantrum. She'll get over herself eventually."

"Nope," Wyatt bluntly disagreed. "I've been watching her since I first arrived."

"Oh," Mell interrupted with a teasing smile. "So you are interested after all."

Mell's grin quickly faded after he noticed Wyatt stern and unchanging glare.

"Let me finish. I'm only saying this to you as a warning. That girl is becoming unhinged. Trust me, I know what crazy looks like. I've seen it before and it never ends well."

"Well, that will be an issue she'll have to take up with father. I'll have nothing to do with it, especially not now of all times."

Wyatt abruptly turned and started walking down the hall. Mell immediately chased after him.

"Something happen," asked Wyatt.

"Surely you remember when I told you that I planned to ask that maid to attend the upcoming play with me, yes?"

"No," Wyatt flatly remarked.

Mell furrowed a brow at him. Wyatt did not so much as acknowledge the puzzled look on his face.

"I know I told you..."

"You probably did and I just wasn't listening."

Mell huffed in frustration. "There is a play coming to town so I asked if she wanted to attend it with me. She agreed and now I'm scrambling to find something to wear."

"How does this involve me?"

"I'm asking you for advice," Mell informed.

"Ask someone else."

"Fine. I was preparing to go into town to hopefully find a gift for her or something. You're welcome to come along if you were looking to get out of the house. I don't think I've seen you leave since you first arrived."

"Guess I've got nothing better to do. I need to set those land mines but that's gonna be a pain in the ass. I'm in no rush to mess with those things."

"Fantastic," Mell proclaimed cheerfully. He ignored that part about tossing land mines. It was yet another concept that he had no understanding of so he paid it no mind.

"Follow me, I'll show you some of the ideas I had in mind."

The two wandered off into the woods after leaving the mansion. All the while, Wyatt kept on guard. He was expecting an attack no matter how quiet things were in that game.

He could not know when or from where the attack would be launched, but he knew better than to let himself get too comfortable.

* * *

Monika roamed through the void without the slightest clue about what she should do next. She thought about loading up another game but did not find anything particularly interesting.

Monika eventually stumbled upon a pair of tall, white-haired individuals standing idly up ahead. They faced away from her and were, at least at the moment, unaware of her presence.

She froze in place and pulled her Colt. Monika has no idea what sort of game they could have come from. She had never seen them before.

"Was it something I said," the long-haired man inquired.

Monika hesitated to shoot. She listened closely to their conversation.

"I don't think so, brother. Maybe they just didn't want to travel with us."

"Perhaps. No matter. I'm sure we'll figure out what's going on eventually."

"Maybe those androids know what's happening," the man with shorter hair suggested.

"Very possible, Eve. Come along, now. Let's go see if we can track them down."

Suddenly, the strange duo was consumed by a bright white light. Monika panicked at the sight of this light and immediately unloaded her cylinder in their direction.

Within an instant, they were gone. Monika had no reason to believe any of her bullets hit him.

She searched the general area for them but she was unable to find any trace of them.

They were gone. Monika scratches her head at the sight. Aside from Wyatt and her other club members, there should not be anyone else roaming around in the void. Such a thing should be impossible.

After finally giving up on finding those two, Monika picked a direction and set out in search of anyone that she could cross paths with.

Anyone at all would do so long as they could answer the questions racing through her mind.

* * *

 _Note: Some of the changes I plan to make include omitting a scene from the Liberty Island chapter. Monika's threatening letter is going to be replaced. Another scene I am not particularly fond of is in a later chapter. Before Monika entered Alice's world, she was thrown into a weird room Wyatt created. The idea was for her to be on her toes since he did have a line referencing other similar traps he had set, but they seem pointless in hindsight so I'll most likely alter that as well._

 _Aside from that, I want to add a short prologue as well as insert "Intervals" which would be mini-chapters sprinkled throughout the story. Both they and the prologue will offer brief glimpses into the real world outside of the computer._

 _I'll start implementing these changes with the release of the next chapter. I'm not actually sure if updating a previous chapter sends out a notification to those following this story. If it does then that would get pretty annoying for readers rather quickly, so I'll avoid that at least until the next chapter is ready for release._


End file.
